FARMINGTON – Saturday’s festivities at Mt. Blue High School began with a celebration of Cougars’ coach Jim Bessey reaching 400 career victories.

They concluded with a more spontaneous celebration of No. 402, as Bessey and Mt. Blue outlasted Bangor 54-46 in a Class A boys basketball battle to knock the Rams from the unbeaten ranks.

“It means a lot to us,” said Mt. Blue senior guard Art Trask. “After the ceremony for Coach’s 400th win, we wanted to give him more than that. A win would have been huge for him and of his family and all of the alumni who have played for him over the years. It was a big game, and we just worked hard. We hunkered down on defense, and we got it done.”

This wasn’t a huge shocker, considering 9-3 Mt. Blue visited Bangor two weeks earlier and took the Rams to overtime before dropping a 61-57 decision.

That was one of two motivating factors for the Cougars in the rematch.

“We had a lot of confidence because we played them so close the last time,” said sophomore guard Ben Russell, who came off the Mt. Blue bench with a 12-for-12 effort from the free-throw line in the second half en route to a team-high 18 points. “We knew how to do it because coach prepared us well, and we just wanted to push the ball up the court every single possession.”

The other motivation was to win on a day when family, friends and alumni turned out to recognize one of the more unheralded big winners in Maine’s coaching fraternity.

“There was considerable pressure on the boys today, going through a ceremony like that before the game and them surely feeling they should do something, too,” said Bessey. “I certainly didn’t expect that from them, but I’m certainly happy with the way they played.”

Bangor (11-1) took its last lead at 10-7 early in the second quarter on a three-point play by senior forward Alex Gallant. But other than Gallant, who scored a game-high 25 points and made all nine of his free throws, the Rams struggled against a persistent Mt. Blue defense.

“They just outplayed us today,” said Bangor coach Roger Reed, himself a member of the 400-win club. “They played hard, they made better decisions than we did and they deserved to win, period. We didn’t execute as well as they executed. This team is tenacious defensively. They did a good job and took us out of our offense a lot.”

Mt. Blue also took Bangor out of its defense. The Rams started in a 2-3 zone, but the Cougars made four 3-pointers in the second quarter to take control and force Bangor to play man-to-man.

Sophomore Jamie Sawyer scored from long range for a 10-10 tie, then back-to-back 3-pointers by Russell gave Mt. Blue a 20-12 lead before Isaiah Brathwaite (12 points) followed with a 3 and a free throw to push the margin to 26-16.

Once Bangor left the zone, the game’s pace quickened and that played to Mt. Blue’s strength – as evidenced by a steal and last-second fast break that produced a Joe Gilbert layup at the buzzer to give the Cougars a 28-17 halftime lead.

“Our intention was to play faster,” said Bessey, “and once we shot well enough to get them out of their zone I thought we had good tempo and moved the ball up the court pretty well.”

Both teams endured second-half foul trouble, and while both shot well from the line (Mt. Blue 20 of 28, Bangor 18 of 21), the Cougars got the ball to Russell and he showed perfect form.

“Actually one of the players said ‘get the ball to Ben,’ and I seconded that, I thought that would be a good idea,” Bessey said. “We were trying to get him the ball, it was probably pretty obvious that’s what we were doing.”

Russell made four free throws in the third quarter to help Mt. Blue maintain a 35-24 lead, then made all eight of his tries over the game’s final eight minutes – the Cougars shot 10 of 13 as a team in the fourth. Bangor got no closer than five points on a three-point play and a follow-up basket by Lee Suvlu with a minute left.

“You have to put a lot of time into free throws, you have to shoot a lot, even outside of practice,” said Russell, one of three Mt. Blue subs who combined for 27 points. “I really feel comfortable in a game shooting free throws. That’s like home to me.”

COUGARS 54, RAMS 46

Bangor (11-1) Mt. Blue (9-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Jellison 0 1 2 2 2 Brthwaite 5 12

Larochelle 0 0 0 0 0 A. Gilbert 1 4

McAllian 2 13 1 2 5 Paytas 1 4 2

Zolper 0 2 0 0 0 Toothaker 1 2

Edwards 0 1 0 0 0 Trask 2 6 7

Suvlu 2 9 4 6 8 J. Gilbert 1 2

Bernstein 0 1 0 0 0 Russell 2 7 12 12 18

Gallant 8 16 9 9 25 Sawyer 2 4 7

Chase 0 0 0 0 0

Weston 2 5 2 2 6

Crews 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 14 48 18 21 46 Totals 15 38 20 28 54

Bangor 7 17 24 46

Mt. Blue 7 28 35 54

3-pt. goals – Bangor (0-7): Zolper 0-1, Suvlu 0-2, McAllian 0-4; Mt. Blue (4-12): Russell 2-3, Sawyer 1-2, Brathwaite 1-4, Toothaker 0-1, Trask 0-2

JV: Bangor 48-41

Attendance: 900 (est.)