BREWER – The sweat was still dripping off Bangor’s Tommy Waterman 10 minutes after the final buzzer.

The floorburns from 32 minutes of playing time weren’t showing. However, the grin of a win was.

Waterman left the Brewer High gym with a season-high 18 points Saturday night to help the Rams earn a gritty 61-51 schoolboy basketball victory over their archrivals, the Brewer Witches.

More importantly, the junior point guard robbed the Witches of crucial momentum with two consecutive steals and a lead-grabbing layup with 37 seconds left in the third quarter for a 46-44 Bangor edge.

“We got into a press, to change it up a little bit, and trap off the dribble,” Waterman said, explaining coach Roger Reed’s defensive alterations during a timeout with 2:17 left in the quarter.

“We’ve done that the last couple of games and it’s hurt the other team,” he said. “It’s a man-to-man with a run and jump. It’s just a surprise. They don’t see it coming, and then all of a sudden, the guy jumps them and they turn the ball over.”

The scheme worked without a hitch.

“That kind of hurt,” Brewer coach Mark Savage said. “We were trying to sub. We were trying get us some rest.”

Brewer surged again to tie the game for the third time at 49-all on senior forward Adam King’s right baseline 3-pointer with 6:16 left in the game.

Slowing the Witches charge again, Waterman knocked down his third 3-pointer of the night with 4:58 left. Jason St. Pierre upped the ante 18 seconds later with a put back from the paint for a five-point Bangor lead.

Peter Pitula, a 6-3 junior forward, extended the Rams five-point lead going a clutch 5 of 6 from the line and snuck in a fast-break layup on a Mike Wilcox pass before the buzzer. He finished with a season-best of 19 points and a team-high six rebounds.

The Rams’ fierce and fleet-footed 2-3 zone shut down the Witches’ inside game and forced the outside shooters into four failed 3-point attempts in the game’s last 1:19.

Bangor, now 12-1, got 12 points and four steals from St. Pierre, a 6-2 senior guard.

Brewer, which drops to 6-7, rode King’s outside shooting for 19 points, and James Hinckley on the inside for eight rebounds and 16 points, including eight in the first quarter, to continue nipping at the Rams’ hooves.

“The tall people were spreading out on the two bottom wings because Adam [King] was ready to shoot,” Waterman said. “They’d get the high post and dump it down and we wouldn’t be there. So they spread our zone out a lot in the first quarter and we tightened it up.”

Senior forward Buddy Chambers added nine rebounds and eight points for Brewer. Senior guard Robb Pawson finished with six points, four steals and three assists.

Chipping away at an 11-point, second-quarter deficit, Brewer climbed to a 44-42 edge at the third quarter’s 2:24 mark following King’s 3-point play.

Pitula’s baseline 16-footer tied it at 44-apiece with 48 seconds left. Waterman then stole the ball on the Rams’ run-and-jump press and laid it in 11 seconds later for the Rams’ 46-44 lead.

Waterman relieved Brewer of the ball on its next possession and fed Mike Arsenault, who missed the layup. The junior forward redeemed himself with a 3-pointer from the low left side to open the fourth quarter and push the lead to 49-44.

The Rams, who used one substitute in the game, began to kill the clock following St. Pierre’s basket with 4:40 left to gain the free-throw advantage, and Brewer obliged with little choice.

“We wanted to get into one-and-one. It was too close for comfort,” Reed said of Bangor’s attempts to get to the bonus by holding the ball with 4:40 left in the game.

Rams 61, Witches 51

Bangor (12-1) Brewer (6-7)

Name G AG F AF TP Name G AG F AF TP

Waterman 7 11 1 1 18 Johnson 0 3 0 0 0

St. Pierre 5 11 0 1 12 King 7 22 1 1 19

Wilcox 0 0 0 1 0 Corson 0 4 0 0 0

Civiello 2 7 1 2 5 Griffin 1 1 0 0 2

Arsenault 3 12 0 0 7 Pawson 3 7 0 0 6

Pitula 6 11 5 6 19 Hinckley 8 11 0 0 16

Hughes 0 0 0 0 0

Chambers 4 7 0 0 8

Totals 23 52 7 11 61 Totals 23 55 1 1 51

Bangor 21 34 46 61

Brewer 12 28 44 51

3-pt. goals: Bangor (8-23): Waterman 3-5, St. Pierre 2-6, Civiello 0-1, Arsenault 1-6, Pitula 2-5; Brewer (4-17): Johnson 0-1, King 4-13, Corson 0-2, Pawson 0-1

Preliminary: Bangor JVs 62, Brewer JVs 39