HAMPDEN – In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Tuesday night’s boys basketball game between Hampden Academy and Messalonskee of Oakland went from tight game to runaway.

Actually, it was more like a rideaway as the Broncos reared up in the third quarter with two big scoring runs and then galloped away to a 61-40 victory over the Eagles.

The Broncos improved to 15-2 and avenged a double-overtime loss to Messalonskee by turning up their shooting percentage and defensive intensity in the third quarter.

“We haven’t really played any zone defense to speak of, but that really seemed to slow them down,” said Hampden coach Russ Bartlett.

Hampden’s switch from man-to-man to zone also helped the Broncos avoid further foul trouble.

Star center Jordan Cook was called for his third with 6:43 left in the third quarter, but stayed in and scored six of Hampden’s next 10 points before sitting out the final two minutes of the third.

“There were two minutes left in the quarter and we wanted to get a couple good possessions with me on the bench, which we did,” said Cook, who led all scorers with 23 points on 9-for-13 shooting. “Then I came back in the fourth.”

With a bit of a vengeance, actually, as the 6-foot-10 Cook had five points, three of his seven rebounds, and both of his blocks in the final quarter.

“I couldn’t be quite as aggressive and tried to alter some shots instead of blocking them,” said Cook.

Cook got a lot of help from his friends as Max Silver found him on the blocks with deft passing while fellow senior J Uhrin scored six of his 18 points and grabbed four of his game-high nine rebounds in the third.

“Coach talked about how our defense kept us in the game in the first half because we weren’t shooting the ball real well or giving Cook a lot of touches,” said Uhrin. “In the second half, our shots started to fall more and we were giving him more looks.”

The senior guard made a game-best three steals to key Hampden’s defensive clipping of the Eagles’ wings.

Hampden held Messalonskee to 4-for-10 shooting from the field in the third and helped force six of the Eagles’ nine total turnovers.

“I think it was more that they went zone and we didn’t do a good job of breaking it down,” said coach Tom Hill, whose Eagles are now 12-5. “They haven’t played it much this year, but they did a nice job shutting things down off that and our outside shooters weren’t looking to shoot to open things up.

“We had three or four possessions we didn’t get anything out of and we kind of ran out of gas.”

Hampden went on a 10-1 scoring run with 5:19 left in the third and then finished the quarter with a 9-0 run to make it 48-29. Hampden’s lead would never be less than 17 the rest of the way.

BRONCOS 61, EAGLES 40

Messalonskee (12-5) Hampden (15-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Murphy 0 2 0 0 0 Juco 1 2 2

Stanhope 2 8 1 2 5 Maddox 0 0 0

Brooks 0 1 0 0 0 Evans 0 0 0

Bryant 0 2 3 4 3 Uhrin 6 13 18

Evans 1 4 2 2 4 Schaeffer 0 0

Tracy 2 6 0 0 5 Farley 2 3 4

Haggan 1 1 0 0 2 McCue 3 9 7

Natole 5 11 1 2 12 Spaulding 0 0

Hash 0 0 2 2 2 Hodgdon 2 4 0 5

Ouellette 0 3 0 0 0 Silver 1 2 2

Holmes 0 1 0 0 0 Cook 9 13 23

Taylor 3 3 1 4 7 Aurelio 0 0 0

Lessard 0 5 0 0 0

Totals 14 47 10 16 40 24 48 10 14 61

Messalonskee 7 19 29 40

Hampden 11 24 48 61

3-pt. goals – Messalonskee (2-12): Tracy 1-3, Natole 1-3, Murphy 0-1, Holmes 0-1, Stanhope 0-1; Hampden (3-11): Uhrin 2-5, Hodgdon 1-1, Cook 0-1, McCue 0-4

JV: Hampden 54-39

Attendance: 550 (est.)