SOUTH CHINA – Josh Jones seemingly had made the play of the game, a midcourt steal and two-handed dunk to end a 10-point Camden Hills run and restore host Erskine Academy to the lead with four minutes left in their Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference boys basketball showdown Tuesday night.

The packed house suddenly was going bonkers, but Will Horn would have none of it.

Instead of being intimidated by the dunk, the 5-foot-10 senior guard answered immediately with a 3-pointer that gave Camden Hills its first lead of the game with 3:47 left and propelled the Windjammers to a 68-60 victory.

“[Jones] flushed it, it was one heck of a dunk,” said Horn. “But I knew there was two of their guys left back there and we had a little fast break going the other way. We pushed it up and I had an open 3-pointer and I hit it.

“I saw the hoop, I saw I was open, and I jacked it.”

Horn’s triple gave Camden Hills a 55-54 lead, and senior forward Tim Stammen followed with a 3-pointer on the Windjammers? next possession to extend the margin to 58-54.

Erskine senior guard Darrell Haskell countered with a 3-pointer to close the gap to one point with 2:50 left, but the defending Class B state champions managed just one more point until the final buzzer, while Camden Hills converted 4 of 6 from the line to go with layups by Stammen and junior forward Cameron Puls.

“The bottom line was they hit open shots and we were 4 for 14 behind the 3-point line,” said Erskine coach Tim Bonsant, “and they executed better than we did at the end.”

Erskine (1-1) almost had this game put away, opening the fourth quarter with six straight points to take a 52-42 lead when Mike Cotnoir hit a 3-pointer with seven minutes remaining.

Camden Hills, which had trailed from the outset but had hung around until this point, used Erskine turnovers as the catalyst for a comeback.

While Erskine struggled to maintain ball control – committing 10 fourth-quarter turnovers – the Windjammers began hitting shots.

Senior forward Nick Tedford sandwiched a layup and a 3-pointer around a follow-up shot by Stammen, and a baseline drive by senior point guard Jamey Davis drew the Windjammers within 52-51 with 5:11 left. Twenty-one seconds later, Davis made 1 of 2 from the line to tie the game, but Jones quickly snatched momentum back in the most emphatic of fashions – only to have Horn respond with the last of his three 3-pointers of the night.

“The biggest play of the game was Will sticking the three after the dunk, and that’s a senior play,” said Camden Hills coach Jeff Hart. “You?re not going to get most sophomores making a play like that after a dunk when the crowd’s going crazy, but he stuck it. That was pretty impressive.”

Tedford led four Camden Hills seniors who scored in double figures with 18 points, while Stammen had 14 and seven rebounds. Horn added 13 points and Davis scored 12, while Puls, a junior, contributed nine points.

Senior forward James Leibowitz, one of three first-year starters for Erskine, scored a game-high 19 points to go with seven rebounds. Jones added 17 points and nine boards, while Haskell scored 13.

WINDJAMMERS 68, EAGLES 60

Camden Hills (2-0) Erskine Acad. (1-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Horn 4 6 2 2 13 Peterson 0 2 1

Davis 2 8 7 12 12 Cotnoir 2 7 6

Pike 0 1 0 1 0 Lyford 0 0 0 0

Kerr 0 1 0 0 0 Baghdoyan 0 1 0

Stammen 6 12 1 2 14 Haskell 4 14 13

Rogers 1 1 0 0 2 Kendall 0 0 0

Puls 4 7 1 3 9 Jones 6 6 5 17

Tedford 6 8 3 4 18 Liebowitz 7 11 5 6 19

Boynton 2 3 0 4

Totals 23 44 14 24 68 21 44 14 21 60

Camden Hills 6 23 42 68

Erskine Acad. 10 28 46 60

3-pt. goals – Camden Hills (8-15): Horn 3-3, Tedford 3-4, Stammen 1-2, Davis 1-5, Pike 0-1; Erskine Academy (4-15): Haskell 3-8, Cotnoir 1-6, Baghdoyan 0-1

JV: Camden Hills 57-39

Attendance: 750 (est.)