ORONO – The Dexter boys basketball team’s ninth straight victory didn’t require overtime, but it wasn’t decided until well after time expired Tuesday night.

For it wasn’t until the game officials conferred with the scorer’s table that they determined that a follow-up shot by junior forward Steve Robinson beat the final buzzer to give the Tigers a 41-40 victory over Orono.

“I didn’t even know what the time was, I just put it back up hoping I beat the buzzer,” said Robinson, “and I guess it did.”

Orono took a 40-39 lead when sophomore Seth Dwyer made two free throws with nine seconds left. Out of timeouts, Dexter quickly advanced the ball down the court, but Dwyer blocked a Robinson shot from the baseline out of bounds with two seconds left.

Ryan Martin inbounded the ball to Nick Peirce, whose close-range shot rolled off the rim and right to Robinson, who was there for the putback as the buzzer sounded.

Initially there was no call, but after a brief meeting at the scorer’s table the basket was ruled good, and Dexter had escaped a rough road test.

“I didn’t see it, I wasn’t watching the clock. I knew it was close,” said Orono coach Ben Goodwin. “It’s just a tough one. They made a great play, but our kids played hard tonight. It was a good high school basketball game.”

Orono was in control for most of this contest, using a zone defense to relegate Dexter’s offense to the perimeter while forcing 19 turnovers by the Tigers, 10-2 and ranked second in Eastern Maine Class C.

The 4-10 Red Riots built a 24-16 halftime lead behind 10 points from guard Mardy Simon and seven points from forward Bryan Henigan, and while Dexter slowly crept back, the Orono lead was still 35-32 with 1:43 left.

That’s when Dexter senior guard Brandon Woodman turned the game around with some defense of his own. First he stole an Orono pass from the baseline toward the perimeter and raced in for a layup with 1:21 to play.

Then he stole the Red Riots’ subsequent inbounds pass and scored again, giving Dexter a 36-35 lead with 1:12 left – its first advantage since midway through the opening quarter.

“We needed the ball, and we had a double team down low and they only had one pass and that was back outside,” said Woodman. “I went over and guarded [Dwyer] and they passed it right to him and I got it and went in. I got that layup and then they went to inbound the ball and they threw it right to me.”

Simon responded with a three-point play off a runner from the lane to give Orono a 38-36 lead with 58 seconds left, but Aaron Woodman, Brandon’s younger brother, hit a 3-pointer to give Dexter a 39-38 edge with 39 seconds to play.

Aaron Woodman led Dexter with 11 points, while Robinson had 10 points and eight rebounds and Peirce also scored 10 points.

Simon scored a game-high 15 points for Orono, while Henigan added 11.

“We’ve been on a nice roll,” said Murray, “and I’ve been anticipating that we were going to struggle at some point. This Orono team is a good team, they’ve had a tough year but they play hard and they made us look bad tonight.

“But I’ve told the kids since the beginning of the year that there are a lot of ways to win a ballgame and Brandon Woodman is a perfect example of that. He’s the hero of the game tonight. He changed that whole game in about 30 seconds.”

TIGERS 41, RED RIOTS 40

Dexter (10-2) Orono (4-10)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

A.Woodmn 4 6 1 2 11 Simon 6 10 15

Lavin 0 1 0 0 0 Spencer 0 0 0

Robinson 4 7 2 6 10 Bates 0 0 0

Spizuoco 0 0 0 0 0 Theriault 1 2

Peirce 5 7 0 1 10 Dwyer 2 9 8

B.Woodmn 3 7 0 0 6 Millard 1 4 3

Eastman 0 1 0 0 0 Dunton 0 3 0

Martin 0 11 4 5 4 Henigan 5 8 11

Cote 0 0 0 0 0 Bryant 0 3 1 1

Tomer 0 1 0 0

Totals 16 40 7 14 41 Totals 15 39 10 15 40

Dexter 7 16 26 41

Orono 10 24 30 40

3-pt. goals – Dexter (2-10): A. Woodman 2-3, Lavin 0-1, Peirce 0-1, B. Woodman 0-1, Martin 0-4; Orono (0-4): Dunton 0-1, Dwyer 0-3

JV: Dexter 48-31

Attendance: 200 (est.)