Lewis, playing his first basketball game back in Bangor after a year with Lawrence, scored half of the Rams’ 24 points in a hectic second quarter and finished with 26 points in leading the Rams to a convincing 78-49 victory over Lewiston in Friday night’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference opener.

“They had some bigs out there and, I wouldn’t say it was killing us on the boards, but it was hurting us a little bit early,” Lewis said. “We just countered it with some speed and we went into the second quarter knowing we were going to make a run.”

Lewis did most of his scoring inside and in transition as the Rams went small in the second quarter and turned a two-point lead into a 14-point bulge. The Blue Devils pulled to within nine a couple of times in the third quarter but were held to just two field goals in the final 11 minutes as Bangor pulled away.

“A lot of things turned there in the second quarter, with a smaller lineup that, I’ll tell you, offensively wasn’t that smooth, but they were just playing so hard defensively that we got some easy ones, and it gave us a little bit of cushion,” Bangor coach Ed Kohtala said. “We made a couple of spurts aided by guards making the right decisions.”

“Small, big, whatever, Xavier Lewis is a pretty good player,” Lewiston coach Tim Farrar said. “We were chasing the game a lot there.”

Quintarian Brown led the Blue Devils with 20 points, while Isaiah Harris added 13 points and 10 rebounds. Liam Harrigan added 11 points off the bench for the Rams, while Connor Adams chipped in with 10 points and seven rebounds.

Bangor’s bench outscored Lewiston’s, 28-0.

Each team was playing without one of its top scoring options. Bangor guard Alex Campbell had to sit out a game for an ejection dating back to Bangor’s Eastern A quarterfinal loss to Lewiston last season. Lewiston center Carlos Gonzalez was held out because he was ejected from the Devils’ last preseason game.

Lewiston took an early 12-6 lead by pounding the offensive boards and finding Mohamed Mohamud (10 points, seven rebounds) open for a couple of 3-pointers. But the Rams went on an 8-0 run to close the period, capped by Harrigan’s three that put them in front to stay, 14-12, at the end of the quarter.

Lewis started attacking the hoop early in the second quarter and sparked a 13-5 Bangor run. He scored back-to-back buckets on a nice crossover dribble and runner followed by a baseline drive to make it 23-14.  Another Harrigan 3-pointer moments later put the lead into double digits for the first time.

Lewiston committed 11 turnovers in each of the first two quarters. The 21st giveaway of the half led to a three-point play for Lewis. Hunter Boyce’s bucket expanded the Rams’ lead to 38-24 at the intermission.

The Rams shot 9-for-12 from the field in the second quarter.

“We shared the ball very well tonight. We were very unselfish on the offensive end,” senior guard Garrett Johnson said.

Bangor also handled Lewiston’s full court pressure well, committing just six turnovers in the first half.

“We’ve been working hard on it, because we knew coming down here we would see it,” Kohtala said. “To the guys credit, it wasn’t always pretty, but they were passing the ball ahead with some accuracy and finishing some tough layups on the other end.”

Brown scored to cut the deficit back to single digits with a little under three minutes left in the third, but Harrigan drilled his third 3-pointer of the game after the Devils doubled Adams in the post to put it back into double digits to stay.

“I think if we could have gotten one more possession a couple of times we might have done something,” Farrar said. “I was real happy with the kids’ effort, though. It’s a special group because they compete.”

Lewis also had eight rebounds four steals and three blocked shots on the night.

Roger Reed coached the Rams the last time he put on their basketball uniform, but Lewis said the return to his hometown has been seamless, even under a new coach.

“Honestly, it was probably a lot easier,” said Lewis, who played quarterback for Bangor this fall. “I mean, it was just playing for another coach, just playing basketball. That’s all it is. I know I went to Lawrence last year, but I’ve been playing with these kids since second and third grade. They accept me coming back and they have my back and I have their back.”

“Obviously it’s huge having him,” Johnson said. “You always love having an offensive player like him and a defensive player like him as a teammate and as a person in the locker room. He has a great, great work ethic, and he shows it in the game.”

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