OLD TOWN – The Old Town boys basketball team made it look easy for much of the early going at MacKenzie Gymnasium on Thursday night, but had to withstand two second-half comebacks by Hermon before outlasting the stubborn Hawks 58-52.

The win improves the Coyotes to 10-5 in their first season of Class B competition and enhanced their hopes of hosting a preliminary-round playoff game in less than two weeks.

For Hermon, it was a tough loss to take, given that the Hawks had rallied from a 16-point first-half deficit to tie the game twice – only to have 2-for-11 shooting from the free-throw line for the night thwart those comeback efforts.

“That was the difference in the game,” said Hermon coach Dave Pepin, whose team fell to 7-9 with the loss it desperately needed in its bid just to qualify for the preliminary round. “The kids played awfully hard, they always play hard, but we just couldn’t make a foul shot and that was the difference.”

Trailing 50-43 after two free throws by Old Town’s Luke Bartlett – the Coyotes went 11 of 15 from the line – with 4:29 left in the game, Hermon ran off seven unanswered points to tie the game. Derek Helms and Colton Gross each hit a 3-pointer before Andy Ball tied the game by making the front end of a one-and-one after being fouled with 3:07 left.

Ball missed the second free throw, and the Hawks missed another front end on their next possession with the game still tied before Old Town regained the lead on two free throws by Colin Ziegenbien with 2:51 to play.

A good defensive stand by the Coyotes induced a forced shot by Hermon on its next possession, and once Old Town got the ball back it called time to set up a play designed to get the ball inside.

But when the Coyotes put the ball back in play, Bartlett had another idea, hitting a 3-pointer from the left side with 1:32 left to give Old Town the cushion it needed, a 55-50 lead.

“We were looking to work the basketball and get it into the post and then score,” said Old Town coach Marty Clark. “But we didn’t want to take the air out of it either because we’ve done that before and let teams back into the game.

“Luke has got ice running through his veins, so he’s got the green light if he’s open. He missed his last shot so I was a little worried, but he hit the big one. He stepped up.”

Senior guard Mamadou Ba led Old Town with 14 points, including 10 consecutive Coyote points during a three-minute stretch midway through the final half that helped his team pull away from a 35-35 tie to a 47-37 lead.

Ziegenbien added 13 points and seven rebounds, while Ethan Shanley had 10 points and eight rebounds.

Ball paced Hermon with 13 points, while Gross added 12 points and Rogan Rowe grabbed seven rebounds.

Old Town had one of its most efficient offensive stretches of the season to start the game, getting assists on 10 of its first 13 baskets – two of the other three hoops came on offensive rebounds – while building leads of 24-8 and 26-10 early in the second quarter.

But Hermon switched defenses from man-to-man to a trapping 1-3-1 zone, and Old Town’s offense wasn’t quite the same the rest of the way.

“The 1-3-1 definitely bothered us,” said Clark. “They did a great job of matching up and trapping and rotating, but I don’t think we moved as well as we should have away from the ball.”

Hermon used the strong inside play of Ball and Rowe to climb back into the game, and pulled within 32-26 at halftime on a follow-up basket at the second-quarter buzzer by junior guard Devin Dority.

A 9-2 run by the Hawks early in the third period produced a 35-35 tie on a driving basket by Ball. But after Shanley scored on a low-post move to regain the lead for Old Town, Ba connected on a baseline drive, two 3-pointers and a baseline jumper to put his team back in temporary control.

eclark@bangordailynews.net

990-8045

COYOTES 58, HAWKS 52

Hermon (7-9) Old Town (10-5)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Dority 3 4 0 0 6 Bartlett 1 6

Moore 0 3 0 0 0 Boucher 1 3 2

Tarr 2 5 1 4 5 Paradis 0 1 0 0

Pedersen 0 0 0 0 0 Hussey 1 3 2

Gross 5 11 0 2 12 Ba 5 15 14

Helms 3 8 0 0 8 Shorey 1 2 3

Rowe 4 7 0 1 8 Zgenbien 5 9 13

Ball 6 11 1 4 13 Wilkens 4 7 0 8

Shanley 4 5 2 10

Totals 23 49 2 11 52 Totals 22 49 11 15 58

Hermon 8 26 37 52

Old Town 20 32 42 58

3-pt. goals – Hermon (4-12): Gross 2-4, Helms 2-5, Ball 0-1, Moore 0-2; Old Town (3-7): Ba 2-5, Bartlett 1-1, Boucher 0-1

JV: Hermon 61-49

Attendance: 250 (est.)