OLD TOWN – It was like popping the cork out of a champagne bottle that had been shaken steadily for three quarters.

Only instead of the bubbly stuff, it was the Old Town boys team that finally exploded after 24 minutes of constant agitation.

The Indians overcame a slow start and a big deficit early on, and then turned a six-point lead with eight minutes left into a 70-50 walkaway over Brewer at a crowded MacKenzie Gym Saturday night.

It was an improbable ending for a game that had all the markings of a high-scoring barn-burner through the first three quarters, when both teams looked like mirror images of each other – running the floor at breakneck paces and flying all over the ball defensively.

But thanks to dogged pursuit of passes and rebounds and some hot shooting by senior guard Jeremy Belyea, the Old Town Indians outscored the Witches 17-1 during a five-minute span in the final seven minutes to put the game away.

“Our press bothered them a little bit more, but mainly, we just held them to one shot,” said Old Town coach Marty Clark.

The Indians outrebounded the Witches 12-6 in the quarter and 21-12 in the second half.

“There’s the difference,” said Brewer coach Mark Savage. “I think we quit working in the fourth quarter. We didn’t rebound well, we didn’t play any defense… we just disappeared.”

Throw in the helter-skelter, press-breaking play of Belyea, who scored eight of Old Town’s points during that critical five-minute span in the final quarter, and you had the recipe for a Brewer basketball disaster.

“I thought Belyea was the difference in the game. He’d just push, push, push, push… and that erratic play really screwed us up,” said Savage, whose Witches slip to 1-3.

Belyea finished with 28 points and three steals for 3-2 Old Town.

“Coach gave me the green light to shoot because I haven’t been shooting real good and he wanted to get my confidence up. This certainly did it,” Belyea said.

It was a confidence booster for the whole Old Town team, which fell behind 13-2 in the first four minutes after Brewer canned its first three 3-point shots.

Brewer’s shooting prompted Clark to chuck his 1-2-2 zone defense at the half in favor of man-to-man with a little halfcourt press mixed in. It was the second time in three games the Indians switched from zone to man with great success.

“We came out flat in the zone, but I think we outhustled them with the man in the second half,” said forward Brian DeGrasse. “I’d rather go man-to-man and see who’s tougher.”

There weren’t too many players on the court tougher than DeGrasse, who finished with 10 points and eight rebounds, but drew raves from his coach for his defense after taking over the job of guarding Brewer big man Tim Hughes, who had only five of his 16 points and two of his 10 rebounds in the second half.

“He’s giving up a lot of height, but he held his ground and boxed him out off the glass,” said Clark.

Dan Emerson also helped pace the Indians with 13 points and seven rebounds.

Brewer’s Pat Griffin had 12 points, five boards, and a block.

Indians 70, Witches 50

Brewer (1-3) Old Town (3-2)

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

Leighton 0 2 1 2 1 Emerson 5 10 3 4 13

Largay 0 1 0 0 0 Vermette 1 2 0 0 2

Leeman 3 7 2 2 9 Thibeault 0 0 0 0 0

Howard 1 2 0 0 2 Belyea 10 18 7 8 28

Sieber 1 3 0 0 2 Godsoe 0 0 0 0 0

Griffin 4 10 2 3 12 Thibodeau 3 10 0 1 7

Miller 0 2 0 0 0 Sirois 0 1 0 0 0

Johnson 3 7 1 4 7 Dumont 3 5 1 2 8

Dearborn 0 2 0 0 0 Boynton 0 0 0 0 0

Snell 0 4 1 2 1 Fournier 1 4 0 4 2

Kimball 0 1 0 0 0 Yanush 0 1 0 0 0

Hughes 6 16 4 5 15 DeGrasse 5 10 0 0 10

Totals 18 57 11 18 50 Totals 28 61 11 19 70

Brewer 22 32 45 50

Old Town 18 36 51 70

3-pt. goals: Brewer (3-14): Griffin 2-5, Leeman 1-2, Leighton 0-1, Kimball 0-1, Largay 0-1, Snell 0-1, Hughes 0-1, Sieber 0-2; Old Town (3-8): Belyea 1-2, Dumont 1-2, Thibodeau 1-3, Sirois 0-1

Attendance: 500 (est.)

Preliminary: Brewer JVs 70, Old Town 65 (OT)