MILLINOCKET – The outlook for the Hermon girls basketball team couldn’t have been any worse going into Wednesday night’s game against Stearns.

The Hawks were missing two starters (one because of an injury, another because of a school-related disciplinary problem). They were up against a height advantage. And with less than four minutes left in the close game, another player went down with an injury.

Meanwhile, the Minutemen had a full complement of players.

Stearns came away with a 39-38 victory in the game at Wentworth Gymnasium and is now 3-0 in the first week of the high school season.

Minutemen coach Jerry Burleigh was pleased to get the win against Class B Hermon (2-1) but felt his Class C team should have had an easy outing against the depleted Hawks.

“Well, we won. We didn’t make foul shots in the last minute, which we should have done. We hustled and we caused 30 turnovers … but we had 24 turnovers, and a lot of our turnovers, they were like unforced errors. [Hermon] played hard. They played a good strong game and they didn’t give up. Defensively they were really good. They played man-to-man right in our face. We had a height advantage and we couldn’t score.”

Hermon scored the final basket of the game with nine seconds left. The play started when Hawks forward Taryn Macdonald took advantage of a missed free-throw attempt by Katie Nason. Macdonald grabbed the rebound and sprinted down the court to put in a basket with nine seconds left and cut the Stearns lead to one.

Hermon had the momentum, but the Minutemen had the ball. They didn’t let the Hawks commit a foul, and they held the ball and preserved the win.

“We held the ball, made good passes, cut down on the mistakes,” senior forward Shena Pineau said of the Stearns effort in the last quarter.

Hawks’ coach Don Erb’s strategy in the final minute – to make the Minutemen shoot free throws, then get the ball back for Macdonald – nearly worked as Stearns missed all three free throw attempts it took in the last 59 seconds of the game.

“We needed one more possession, I think,” Erb said. “I’m just really proud of them. They showed me a lot tonight. We were just one possession short.”

The 5-foot-10 Pineau came off the bench to score 13 points, including several critical baskets in the second half to push the Minutemen lead.

Jen Raymond, a 5-foot-10 forward, chipped in with 10 points and seven rebounds.

Raymond had six points in the third quarter, including a layup off a pass from Candice Achorn to give the Minutemen a 33-24 advantage.

The Hawks’ tallest starter Wednesday was 5-foot-7 Melissa Overlock, who scored a game-high 14 points.

But Overlock injured her right knee with 3:32 left in the game and had to sit until there were 48 seconds left.

“In the second half we were a little outsized underneath,” Erb said. “They had a couple of easy ones underneath and that hurt us.”

Stearns stretched its lead to 37-31 in the fourth when Pineau banked in a short jump shot, and after Melissa Overlock scored on a driving jumper, Pineau hit two free throws for a six-point lead.

Hermon went 1-for-4 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.

The Hawks let the Minutemen jump out to a 7-2 lead early in the first half, but a 5-0 Hermon run helped them climb back into the game – and stay in it for the rest of the game. Hermon grabbed the lead with 28 seconds left in the second quarter when Jenny Buzzell hit a free throw, but Pineau connected on a jumper to close out the half with a 21-20 Stearns lead.

Minutemen 39, Hawks 38

Hermon (2-1) Stearns (3-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP

Wiggin 1 4 0 0 2 A. MacKenzie 1 5 0 1 2

Hichborn 3 5 1 2 7 Nason 4 8 0 1 9

Garland 0 0 0 0 0 Legassey 0 0 2 2 2

Macdonald 2 10 4 7 8 Pineau 5 8 3 5 13

Reynolds 0 3 1 2 1 K. MacKenzie 0 1 0 0 0

Overlock 6 15 2 3 14 Boynton 0 2 2 2 2

Buzzell 1 6 4 8 6 Pelletier 0 7 1 2 1

Dobbins 0 0 0 0 0 Achorn 0 5 0 1 0

Raymond 4 12 2 2 10

Totals 13 43 12 22 38 Totals 14 48 10 16 39

Hermon 10 20 26 38

Stearns 14 21 33 39

3-pt. goals: Hermon (0-1): Macdonald 0-1; Stearns (1-5): Nason 1-2, A. MacKenzie 0-2, Raymond 0-1

Attendance: 450 (est.)

Preliminary: Stearns JVs 32-30 (OT)