ORONO – Playing in front of a throng of hometown fans on opening night of the high school basketball season, the Orono boys basketball team had its hands full with sharp-shooting Bucksport Friday night.

But despite a valiant, come-from-behind effort in the fourth quarter and the cheers of about 750 fans packed into the Orono High gym, the Golden Bucks held on for a thrilling 64-62 victory over the Red Riots.

“It was very exciting to see a great crowd so early,” Bucksport coach Dave Gonyar said.

Bucksport sealed the win on a wide-open Mike Ogden layup with 26 seconds left in the game and two Orono misses in the final 10 seconds.

Down 62-59 with 56 seconds left after Orono’s Jesse White hit a layup off an inbounds pass from Mike Ulrich to give the Riots their biggest lead of the game, Bucksport’s Abram Allard connected on a 3-pointer off a pass from Jason Harvey to tie it up with 42 seconds left.

Allard said he had an eye on the clock and took a second to decide what to do with the ball.

“I decided to take [the shot]. It was just a choice I had to make,” Allard said. “I could take it or pass it back to Harvey, see if he could get it in. I think it was a good decision.”

On the Bucks’ next possession they lobbed the ball into the low post, where Ogden was waiting alone under the basket. He put in a layup with 26 seconds left, and two missed shots on the other end insured Bucksport’s win.

“We played great defense for 31 minutes and 30 seconds,” Orono coach Aaron Watson said. “Then we missed the kid open on the 3-pointer and he took a great shot. Then we made another mistake and we let them get an open layup.”

“Our defense [was important in the final minute],” Buck’s guard Corey Guilford said. “The thing about our team, we never give up. We were up, we let down, but we kept fighting instead of letting them get the momentum and letting the crowd get into it and us getting distracted.”

Bucksport shot 45.9 percent from the field and was almost flawless from 10-12 feet, which the Bucks needed because of Orono’s decided height advantage. The tallest player on Bucksport’s roster is the 6-foot-3 Ogden, while Orono starts three players about 6-2 and has 6-10 John Saucier off the bench.

“We’re very aggressive on offense and it’s just a matter of our guys penetrating,” Gonyar said. “That’s what sets it up, penetrating and dumping to the open guy because they have to respect our ability to take it inside.”

Harvey led Bucksport with 17 points and Guilford added 16 points. Ryan Cough chipped in with 10.

The Bucks connected on their first eight field-goal attempts, which left the Riots gasping and down 17-4. Once Orono picked up its rebounding and cut down on turnovers, it got back into the game. The Riots used a 7-0 second-half run to cut Bucksport’s lead to 29-28.

The two teams stayed close for the rest of the game.

Mark Mehuren paced Orono with 15 points, including a 3-for-5 effort from the 3-point arc. All three of his 3-pointers came in the third quarter.

Saucier added nine points and starting point guard Daryl Watson also scored nine.

The Riots made nine of their 16 free-throw attempts despite the fact that the Bucks got into foul trouble early (Orono was in the bonus with 4:56 left in the first quarter).

Gonyar: Last year we did it all year, so we have experience, and for the most part we battle hard on the boards and we have to scrap. They’re not going to come easy. It was certainly nice to come out and get a great start.

We haven’t worked hardly at all this year on zone but where we had some key people in foul trouble that we really wanted to protect them a little bit and didn’t want them to pick up any easy fouls. For the most part it was alright

Golden Bucks 64, Red Riots 62

Bucksport (1-0) Orono (0-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP

Beeson 0 0 0 0 0 Watson 4 12 0 0 9

LaLonde 1 1 0 0 2 Mehuren 5 11 2 3 15

Mercer 0 0 0 0 0 Heitmann 2 5 3 3 8

Porter 2 3 0 0 4 Neptune 0 4 2 2 2

Allard 3 9 0 0 7 Glossian 0 0 0 0 0

Nason 0 1 0 0 0 Sinclair 1 2 0 0 3

Cough 4 6 2 2 10 Kempen 0 8 0 2 0

Guilford 7 18 1 1 16 White 4 6 0 0 8

Harvey 8 19 0 0 17 Saucier 4 7 1 2 9

Ogden 3 3 2 2 8 Ulrich 3 6 1 4 8

Totals 28 60 5 5 64 Totals 23 61 9 16 62

Bucksport 24 33 53 64

Orono 16 28 46 62

3-pt. goals: Bucksport (3-10): Allard 1-2, Guilford 1-4, Harvey 1-5; Orono (7-14): Mehuren 3-5, Watson 1-5, Heitmann 1-1, Sinclair 1-2, Ulrich 1-1

Attendance: 750 (est.)