Bench effort helps Witches down Indians

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Mark Savage needed some quality minutes from his Brewer High School bench on Thursday night.

He got more than he asked for.

The Witches scored 32 points over the final eight minutes, with the bench supplying 28 of those, as Brewer pulled away from the Old Town Indians en route to an 81-67 boys basketball victory.

The victory lifted Brewer to 4-3 on the season heading into Friday night’s matchup against Lawrence.

Old Town slipped to 1-4.

With the Witches holding a tenuous four-point lead entering the final quarter, Savage frequently went to his bench to save his players for Friday’s game. Led by Jason Leighton’s 12 points in the final quarter, the bench pulled away from the Indians over the final eight minutes.

Leighton’s 8-for-8 performance from the foul line led a 14-for-17 effort by the non-starters in the fourth quarter.

“We’re tough off the bench,” Savage said. “I told the kids that everybody was going to play and they had to contribute. We had to go with the second group a lot and they didn’t hurt us.”

“I think they were deeper than we anticipated,” said Old Town assistant coach Sam Civiello. “They had some kids who really stepped up. We got into a situation where we had to try to get back into it and they played well down the stretch.”

Brewer’s starters scored 42 points while the bench tallied 39.

Behind Jared Seavey’s 11 first-quarter points, Brewer built up a lead that ranged from six to 11 points in the first half. At the half, Brewer was up 36-27.

An 8-3 run by Old Town to open the second half closed the gap to 39-35, keeping the Indians close enough to possibly grab the lead with a quick run.

Travis Dorr, who played superbly for the Indians underneath, scoring 25 points on 10-for-14 shooting, spearheaded an 8-0 run by sandwiching two offensive putbacks around two Greg Thibodeau hoops.

Dore’s last hoop during the run gave Old Town a 45-44 lead with 1:24 left in the third. It was the only time the Indians would hold the lead.

After swapping misses and turnovers, Brewer finally went ahead for good when Brian Colman picked off an errant Old Town pass, got the baAndy Dore, then filled the lane on the break. Dore hit Colman on the wing and the 6-foot-2 senior forward finished the layup, drew a foul, and sank the free throw to push Brewer back ahead 47-45 with 51 seconds left.

Dore then hit a 15-footer from the baseline before the end of the third to make it a four-point lead.

“We were getting a little worried,” Colman admitted. “Defensively, we were just playing terrible. We wanted to pick it up a bit defensively after that.”

Hoops by Jon Thomas, Dore, and Troy Leavitt opened Brewer final quarter, giving the Witches a 55-47 lead with 6:16 left.

After that, the bench played tough defense and made its foul shots.

“We just wanted to win the game and play hard defense,” Leighton said. “We’re a good foul-shooting team and we can shoot foul shots coming off the bench.”

Colman led the Witches with 15 points, eight rebounds, and four steals. Seavey finished with 11, while Dore and Leavitt tallied 10 points each. Point guard Chris Horr added seven assists and four steals for Brewer.

Greg Thibodeau had 12 points and 11 rebounds for Old Town. Dorr also picked off nine rebounds while McCannell had nine points, seven rebounds, and five assists.

Witches 81, Indians 67

Old Town Brewer

Name AG G AF F TP Name AG G AF F TP

Hashey 15 2 6 5 9 Dore 11 4 0 0 10

G.Thibdeau 16 5 3 2 12 Horr 4 1 6 2 4

DeGrasse 0 0 0 0 0 Seavey 11 4 0 0 11

T.Dorr 14 10 6 5 25 Oxley 2 1 1 0 2

McCannell 9 3 0 0 9 Colman 12 5 4 3 15

Miller 1 0 0 0 0 Billings 1 0 4 4 4

C.Thibdeau 4 1 6 3 5 Leighton 3 2 8 8 12

Dana 1 0 0 0 0 Thomas 8 3 0 0 6

Labree 1 0 0 0 0 Somes 1 0 0 0 0

R.Dorr 6 3 1 1 7 Lang 0 0 0 0 0

Leavitt 7 4 4 2 10

Prill 4 3 2 1 7

Totals 67 24 22 16 67 Totals 64 27 29 20 81

Old Town 13 27 45 67

Brewer 17 36 49 81

Preliminary: Brewer JVs 66, Old Town JVs 45

3-pt. goals: Old Town (3-18): McCannell 3-6, Hashey 0-4, G. Thibodeau 0-5, Miller 0-1, C. Thibodeau 0-1, Dana 0-1; Brewer (7-21): Seavey 3-6, Colman 2-3, Dorr 2-8, Horr 0-2, Thoams 0-2.