ROCKPORT – With a week left in the regular season, the Camden Hills Windjammers are in a fairly good basketball state of mind.

“We’re close to where we want to be,” said junior forward Tim Stammen, who had 11 points and seven rebounds Friday night as Camden Hills fought off Belfast 57-43 in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B schoolboy matchup. “Tonight was a little ugly, but generally we’ve been moving the ball well and we’ve been unselfish and playing good defense.

“But no matter how close you are, you can always get closer, and coach [Jeff] Hart told us we have a lot of work left to do.”

The Windjammers, now 14-2, did struggle somewhat at the offensive end against Belfast’s man-to-man defense, but used their own defensive pressure to force 14 of the Lions’ 22 turnovers after intermission.

“A lot of what we do stems from taking charges, steals, and blocking shots,” said Camden Hills senior forward Ryan Fitzgerald, who added 10 points. “We came out a little sluggish in the first half, but in the second half we picked up the defense, and a lot of our offense comes from our defense.”

Trailing 29-23 at intermission, Belfast drew within four points less than two minutes into the third quarter on a Nick Arthers 3-point goal, but Camden Hills forced three quick turnovers while extending its lead to 37-27.

Stammen scored off a Will Horn steal, and another Belfast turnover led to a Tom Dennen layup. Ben Draper converted two free throws after a Stammen steal, then Stammen scored after Jamey Davis grabbed a loose ball to cap an 8-0 run with four minutes left in the third quarter.

Belfast stayed within striking distance until the midpoint of the fourth period when Horn hit a jumper and a 3-pointer to spark an 8-1 run good for a 55-38 Camden Hills lead entering the game’s final two minutes.

“Camden Hills likes to get you running, and we tried to stay out of that,” said Belfast coach Keith Curtis, whose club fell to 9-7 but remains in contention for a preliminary-round berth. “But there were a couple of key points where they got us doing that and ‘Boom,’ all of a sudden they’ve got six or eight points.”

“It’s why we preach defense,” added Hart. “Tonight we didn’t play as well as we would like offensively, but when we turned the defense up in the second half, that’s when we were able to establish the tempo of the game.”

Arthers led Belfast with 17 points, including a 4-of-5 effort from 3-point range. Senior forward Alden Gregory, one of the Lions’ leading scorers, was held to five points but grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds.

The Lions were hurt by their free-throw shooting – making just 17 of 38 tries from the line.

“With the hoops away from the wall like they are here, it’s like playing at the [Bangor] Auditorium, so that’s an advantage for Camden when they play at home,” Curtis said. “But we shot pretty well from beyond the arc, we just couldn’t knock down free throws and that was the difference in the game.”

WINDJAMMERS 57, LIONS 43

Belfast (9-7) Camden Hills (14-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Whalen 0 1 0 0 0 Davis 2 6 7

Lovely 0 0 0 0 0 Beveridge 0 0

Arthers 5 9 3 4 17 Draper 2 4 6

Ratten 1 7 7 16 9 Horn 3 10 7

Boynton 0 1 0 2 0 Stammen 4 8 11

Herman 0 3 1 2 1 Pike 0 0 1

Martens 0 0 0 0 0 Fitzgerald 4 10

Wakeman 0 0 0 0 0 Kerr 1 1 2

Cunning 2 4 2 4 6 Scamfer 1 1 3

Gregory 2 10 1 6 5 Calabi 0 0 0

Hills 0 0 1 2 1 Tedford 2 7 6

Kennedy 1 1 0 0 2 Puls 1 4 2

Gallant 0 0 2 2 2 Dennen 1 2 2

Stearns 0 0 0 0

Morrow 0 0 0 0

Totals 11 36 17 38 43 Totals 21 49 15 57

Belfast 14 23 32 43

Camden Hills 12 29 42 57

3-pt. goals ? Belfast (4-8): Arthers 4-5, Ratten 0-1, Herman 0-1, Gregory 0-1; Camden Hills (7-15): Fitzgerald 2-3, Davis 2-4, Scamfer 1-1, Horn 1-2, Tedford 1-3, Stammen 0-2

Attendance: 550 (est.)

JV: Camden Hills 56-41