HERMON – Orono’s Nick Heitmann put on a 3-point show, but it was zone defense that keyed the Red Riots to a 65-60 victory over Class B rival Hermon at the high school gym here Friday night.

“It’s a big win, especially at Hermon,” said Derek Sinclair, who led Orono with 18 points, including 6-for-6 shooting from the free-throw line in the final 2:27 of the fourth quarter.

“We played more as a unit tonight than we have all year long,” Orono coach Aaron Watson said.

Sinclair got it done for the Riots (4-3) late in the fourth, and Heitmann gave Orono a huge lift early in the period.

After a back-and-forth third quarter that ended with Orono up 45-44, John King scored off a Joey Schacht pass to regain the lead for Hermon. Heitmann struck next.

On the Riots’ next possession, Heitmann hit a 3-pointer from the right wing, putting Orono up for good. Thirty seconds later he hit another from the right side to give the Red Riots a 51-46 advantage.

“He changes the flow of the game with a couple of [3-pointers] in a row, you bet,” Watson said. “… That fired us up.”

Sinclair said Heitmann’s hoops allowed the team to concentrate on the other end of the floor.

“That’s when you know you’ve got to pick it up on the defensive side, when you make some shots, definitely,” he said.

That was as close as the Hawks would get. Wayne Shaw and Schacht hit 3-pointers for Hermon down the stretch, but Orono kept pace at the free-throw line.

Heitmann finished with 17 points, including 5-of-9 shooting from 3-point range.

“I was waiting for someone to come up and contest my shots but nobody did,” he said. “I was wide open.”

Heitmann, Sinclair and Justin Perron (15 points) combined to make 18 of their 36 field-goal attempts (50 percent).

Not only were things working smoothly on offense for Orono, but the 2-3 zone was doing its job, too. The Hawks were unable to consistently work the ball inside to 6-foot-7 center Porter (who had six of his 14 points in the second half) and had trouble contending with the Riots’ height advantage.

Orono went with 7-foot John Saucier, 6-5 Jesse White and 6-6 Perron on the bottom of its zone.

“That’s going to be real tough for teams to match up against,” Watson said. “We needed to go zone to force them to shoot the outside shot. We worked so hard on staying at home and also getting out on their shooters.”

Hermon’s outside shooters didn’t respond well. Starting guards Shaw (18 points) and Schacht (11 points) combined to go 11-for-38 from the floor.

“We were both playing mostly zone and it was a matter of whose shooters were going to put the ball in the basket, and they managed to do it more than we did,” Hermon coach Alan Tweedie said. “That’s what you have to do against the zone. Most of your points are going to have to come from the perimeter. We were a little late in the first half getting out on some of their shooters and I think that was the difference.”

The Hawks (3-4) ended the first half on a high, turning around a four-point Orono lead in the final 2:21 of the second quarter. Coming out of a timeout, Hermon was down 29-25 when Shaw nailed a 3-pointer, Porter scored on a fast-break layup and Shaw did the same thing with 53.1 seconds left to give the Hawks a 32-29 lead.

RED RIOTS 65, HAWKS 60

Orono (4-3) Hermon (3-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

J. Miller 1 4 3 7 6 Schacht 4 16 11

Heitmann 6 12 0 0 17 Robinson 1 3

Perron 7 12 1 2 15 McLeod 0 1 0

Sinclair 5 12 6 6 18 Ouellette 1 5

Socoby 0 5 0 0 0 Shaw 7 22 18

White 1 5 0 0 2 Porter 6 13 14

Saucier 2 5 2 4 6 King 4 6 9

Gavett 0 0 1 2 1 Keith 0 0 0

Totals 22 55 13 21 65 23 65 10 13 60

Orono 14 29 45 65

Hermon 15 32 44 60

3-pt. goals: Orono (8-15): Heitmann 5-9, Sinclair 2-3, J. Miller 1-3; Hermon (4-14): Shaw 2-6, Ouellette 1-3, Schacht 1-5

Attendance: 225 (est.)

Preliminary: Hermon JV 87-64