BANGOR – Chalk one up for fatherhood and put one in the victory column for the Husson College Braves.

The host Braves notched their first win of the season, a tough 68-64 verdict over a young-but-relentless Five Towns College team from Dix Hills, N.Y., Friday night at Newman Gymnasium and senior guard Leslie Trott learned to take her dad’s advice.

“My dad before the game told me to drive to the basket, so instead I shot outside a lot,” said a chuckling Trott, who was a dreadful 2-for-12 early in the second half Friday. “But my shots weren’t falling, so I decided to follow my father’s advice and that seemed to work more.”

Did it ever, Trott laid off the outside stuff and moved closer to the paint, where she went 4-for-6 the rest of the way as she and fellow Brewer High alum Liz Boone teamed up to lead the Braves to victory in the first round of the 36th annual Paul Bunyan Invitational Basketball Tournament.

Husson will take on 2-1 Bates, an impressive 103-45 victor over University of Maine-Machias earlier Friday night, in a 3 p.m. championship game on Saturday.

Boone finished with 11 points and a team-high 12 rebounds, but it may have been her defensive work that won the game in crunch time for the Braves. With 16 seconds left and Husson up 66-64, Five Towns brought the ball up the court for a final shot after stuffing Husson on two attempts to take a four- or five-point lead. With four seconds to go, Boone reached out and ripped away a pass intended for a wide-open Tenille Dunning, who had snuck into the right block and was perfectly positioned for the game-tying layup.

Boone was then fouled with two seconds left, sunk both free throws, and then watched the last second tick off the clock as her teammates celebrated.

“They were bigger than me under there so I just concentrated on boxing out and keeping my position,” said the 5-foot-10 Boone, who ended up with three steals in the second half as she and Husson’s double teams helped hold Five Towns 6-1 forward Kelli-Ann Henry down in the second half.

Henry torched Husson for four points and 13 rebounds (seven offensive) in the first half. In the second, she had three points and six boards, only one of them offensive.

Despite 33 percent shooting, Trott turned in a nice all-around effort with 14 points, seven boards, and three steals.

“She was cold, but then she started hitting shots and I think because she missed early, we started to forget about her and one thing you can’t do is forget about shooters,” said Five Towns coach Ron Moore, whose roster has no juniors or seniors on it.

Tenille Dunning led Five Towns with 19 points. Erin Corey scored 16 and Pamela Robinson had 10.

“That’s a pretty good team that’s only in their first year of intercollegiate competition,” said Husson rookie head coach Harold Williams. “We’re a young team too, so it feels good to get that first W. The girls are starting to believe what we’re trying to do here will work.”

Stephanie Fry had 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists while Kelly Dow – who left the game after rolling her ankle late, but was feeling better afterward – had 14 points and five assists.

“This is a huge win,” said Trott. “I said we’re not going to lose our first game in our own tournament because that’s embarrassing.”

Earlier Friday, Bates made the waters very rough for the Clippers as they harassed them into 38 turnovers en route to the big win.

Sophomore forward Lauren Dubois shot 10-for-15 from the floor and led the Bobcats with 25 points and eight rebounds.

Bates used superior depth to simply wear the Clippers down and out and a withering, fullcourt press plus tight, man-to-man defense to run them ragged. The pressure never let up as head coach Jim Murphy brought in five fresh subs five minutes into the game and kept rotating to keep players fresh.

Sophomore forward Olivia Zurek and senior guard Kate Dockery each scored 10 for Bates.

The Bobcats made life miserable for UM-Machias in the first half as the Clippers had 21 turnovers to Bates’ seven (17 for the game). Reserve freshman guard Heather Taylor came off the bench to lead the defensive charge with three of her five steals while Julia Price had two in the first half.

Freshman guard Sara Ricker from Perry led the Clippers, now 3-3, with 18 points while Christina Rich had eight rebounds.

Braves 68, Five Towns 64

Five Towns (2-4) Husson (1-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Robinson 4 13 3 6 11 Trott 6 18 14

Marcus 0 1 0 0 0 Sexton 2 5 8

Lykes 0 0 0 0 0 Comeau 0 2 2

Beal 4 8 0 0 9 S. Fry 4 5 2 10

Fung 0 2 0 0 0 Hughes 4 7 1 9

Dunning 8 15 2 4 19 Duplisea 0 0

Finney 1 5 0 0 2 Dow 4 14 14

Corey 6 18 4 8 16 Boone 2 7 11

Henry 3 10 1 2 7

Totals 26 72 10 20 64 22 58 19 24 68

3-pt. goals: Five Towns (2-11): Dunning 1-1, Beal 1-2, Corey 0-3, Robinson 0-5; Husson (5-19): Dow 2-4, Sexton 2-4, Trott 1-8, Hughes 0-1, Comeau 0-2

Attendance: 173

Halftime: Husson, 31-22

Bobcats 103, Clippers 45

Bates (2-1) UM-Machias (3-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Price 3 6 1 3 7 Aziz 0 3 3

Taylor 4 7 0 0 8 Rich 2 11 6

Hoffman 2 2 0 0 4 Robb 3 11 6

Zurek 4 8 2 4 10 Nuite 0 1 0

Nafe 3 5 1 1 7 Magnussen 0 1 0

DeFranco 1 4 0 0 3 Willett 0 1 1

Flaherty 3 8 0 0 6 Welles 1 1 3

Dockery 4 13 2 2 10 Ricker 6 11 18

Dubois 10 15 3 4 23 Copeland 2 4

Hochadel 2 4 1 2 5 Guest 2 7 4

King 4 7 0 0 8

Vincent 3 7 0 0 6

Golobski 2 7 0 2 4

Totals 45 94 10 19 103 16 51 13 20 45

3-pt. goals: Bates (3-6): Dubois 2-2, DeFranco 1-1, Price 0-1, Dockery 0-2; UM-Machias (0-6): Rich 0-1, Ricker 0-1, Nuite 0-1, Willett 0-1, Robb 0-2

Attendance: 173

Halftime: Bates 46-24