BANGOR – Team cohesion is a coveted commodity early in the schoolboy basketball season. But for Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln, it comes naturally.

“We’ve got the same starting five as last year, and we’ve been playing together for the last three years, most of us,” said MA senior guard Dylan Hanscom after the Lynx topped John Bapst of Bangor 57-45 in a Big East Conference Class B matchup at the Bangor Auditorium on Saturday night. “We can tell where each of us is going to be on the floor.”

Mattanawcook limited John Bapst to 32 percent (16 of 50) shooting from the field and forced 22 turnovers by the Crusaders in improving its record to 3-0. During that run, the Lynx have allowed an average of only 32.6 points and forced at least 20 turnovers per game.

“We’ve got some things to work on,” said MA coach Rick Sinclair. “Giving up 17 offensive rebounds is not a good stat, but defensively we played real hard tonight. The kids are playing hard, and their effort is paying off with forcing turnovers and getting some easy hoops from our defense.”

Sophomore guard Derek Libbey came off the bench to pace the Lynx with 18 points, while senior guard Steve Andrews scored 12 and Hanscom added 10 points and four assists.

“We’ve got good, quick guards and a lot of them, so we keep rotating them in one after the other,” said Sinclair. “Either we’re going to wear a team down eventually or break them down defensively.”

Senior forward Luke Emery chipped in with nine points and four assists, while frontcourt mates Levi Slike, Isaac Young, and Adam L’Italien combined for 16 rebounds and seven blocked shots.

Senior guard Josh Jameson led 1-2 John Bapst with 13 points and five steals, while senior forward Joe Novak scored nine points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.

This game marked a convergence of reclassification, with John Bapst moving down to Class B from Class A this season while Mattanawcook is making the move up from Class C.

But upward mobility proved to be no problem for the Lynx on this evening as they never trailed after Slike made a layup off an Andrews assist for a 4-3 lead 76 seconds into the contest. That started a run of 10 straight MA points capped off by two straight 3-pointers by Hanscom to give the Lynx a 12-3 advantage with 4:21 left in the first quarter.

John Bapst crept within 12-8 on a pullup jumper by Logan Adams, but Libbey converted a three-point play off a baseline runner and made a layup after a steal by Shey Gardner to give MA a 17-8 lead at the end of the period.

Novak had a strong second quarter for John Bapst, working the offensive glass for seven points and eight rebounds, but MA was able to extend its lead as Libbey scored six more points and Andrews made two 3-pointers to power the Lynx to a 33-21 halftime advantage.

John Bapst got no closer than nine after intermission, that initially coming midway through the fourth quarter on a three-point play by 6-foot-7 Ross Shaler. But Emery made two free throws and Andrews followed with four straight from the line as the Lynx preserved their third straight victory by double digits.

“We learned we could play a whole game,” said Hanscom. “We hadn’t had to the first couple of games, but this game was more of a test of our conditioning. We knew they had some big guys, so we wanted to pressure them more and make them run. We knew they were a slow-tempo team, so we wanted to get up and down the floor.”

LYNX 57, CRUSADERS 45

Mattanawcook (3-0) John Bapst (1-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Birminghm 0 0 0 0 0 Healey 2 3 6

Gardner 0 1 0 0 0 Frye 0 0 0

Libbey 6 9 5 7 18 N. Smith 0 0

Andrews 3 6 4 4 12 Ortiz 0 0 0

D.Hanscm 3 5 2 4 10 T.Gagnon 0 0

Emery 2 7 4 6 9 Keefe 1 5 3

Young 2 6 0 0 4 Adams 2 13 8

Slike 2 5 0 0 4 Jameson 5 12 13

L’Italien 0 3 0 0 0 Novak 4 7 9

Shaler 1 7 2 4

Cushman 1 3 0 0 2

Totals 18 42 15 21 57 Totals 16 50 10 20 45

Mattanawcook Acad. 17 33 44 57

John Bapst 8 21 31 45

3-pt. goals – Mattanawcook (6-9): Hanscom 2-2, Andrews 2-3, Libbey 1-2, Emery 1-2; John Bapst (3-13): Jameson 3-6, Healey 0-1, Keefe 0-3, Adams 0-3

JV: John Bapst 47-44

Attendance: 250 (est.)