AUGUSTA – The game, and the chance to win the gold basketball that had eluded the Houlton High boys basketball program for generations, was slipping away.

But Mark Socoby refused to let go, sparking a game-changing run in the final 80 seconds of the third quarter Saturday night that propelled the Shiretowners to a 64-49 victory over Jay in the Class C state championship game.

The victory came in the Shiretowners’ first state championship game appearance since 1930, and marked the school’s first state title in boys basketball.

“People have talked a lot about history the last few weeks,” said Houlton senior center Adam Miles. “Now we’ve made history.”

Socoby, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, finished with 32 points, 14 rebounds, four blocked shots and three assists. Much of his offense came at the free throw line, where he made 15 of 18 attempts while inducing Jay standouts Sean Fry and Marc Kelvey into foul trouble.

“That was the one thing we were afraid of. We couldn’t get into foul trouble and match them,” said Jay coach Mike Child. “Socoby’s a great player, there’s no doubt about it. Give the kid credit. He did what he had to do and we sent him to the line too many times.”

Trailing 23-21 at halftime, Jay found its perimeter game and knocked down four 3-pointers in the third quarter -the fourth by Joel Ouellette to give the Tigers a 43-35 lead with 1:26 left in the period.

Socoby fed Miles for a layup to close the gap to six with 1:02 left, but Jay then seemed content to play for the last shot of the quarter.

But the Tigers shot too soon, with Jacob Farrington missing a jumper with still 15 seconds left. Socoby rebounded, and delivered a bullet pass from midcourt to a wide-open Jordan Hill for a layup.

Jay (19-3) then double-dribbled after inbounding the ball, leaving just enough time for Socoby to deliver a fadeaway 3-pointer from the left wing as time expired.

“It felt real good when I took it, but when it went in it felt even better,” he said.

Suddenly Jay’s lead was only 43-42, and this game’s story line had undergone a decisive shift.

“That was a huge momentum lift,” said Houlton coach Sean Callahan, whose team was playing its first season in Class C. “We came into that huddle going into the fourth quarter believing that this was going to be our game now, and we owned the fourth quarter, just like in the Eastern Maine championship.”

Indeed. While a shaken Jay squad missed its first nine shots of the period and went without its next field goal until just 1:30 remained, Houlton built on its late third quarter run.

Socoby scored from the baseline with 7:10 left to give Houlton a 45-43 lead, and the Shiretowners went on to outscore Jay 16-2 over the first 6:19 of the fourth period – good for a 23-2 run overall.

Socoby had 14 of the 23 points, including four straight free throws that stretched the Houlton lead to 58-45 with 1:41 to play.

“We knew that once we got on a run we weren’t going to stop,” said Houlton senior forward Dustin Edwards, “We just put it all together in the fourth quarter.”

Hill, a 6-2 junior forward, scored 10 points for the Shiretowners, and teamed with Socoby and Miles (five points, seven rebounds) to defend against the Jay front line of the 6-5 Fry, 6-4 Kelvey and 6-5 Zach Charles.

“We did a good job of neutralizing Fry, I thought,” said Callahan. “We threw Mark at him, we threw Jordan at him, and then we came with Adam, and they all gave him a pretty hard time.”

Fry led Jay with 13 points and eight rebounds, while Kelvey added 10 points and Charles grabbed nine boards.

Houlton (20-2) jumped out to a 13-6 lead as Edwards hit a 3-pointer, junior guard Brett Miles hit a pair of jumpers and Hill scored from the low post to spark an early 9-2 run.

The Shiretowners took a 17-12 lead into the second quarter but failed to make a field goal over the next eight minutes, instead shooting 6-of-8 from the line to account for their only points of the period as guards Brett Miles and Danny Bartlett battled foul trouble.

Jay was able to capitalize, and closed to within two points by intermission. The Tigers, state champions as recently as 2002, built on that momentum early in the third quarter, with a 3-pointer by Wells and a drive by Charles giving Jay its largest lead, 38-29, with 3:27 left in the period.

But Houlton, which trailed Washington Academy of East Machias by six points midway through the third quarter of its Eastern C final a week earlier, had one more comeback left – and now have a championship to show for it.

“We were down a bit,” said Socoby, “but we knew we could come back.”

SHIRETOWNERS 64, TIGERS 49

Houlton (20-2) Jay (19-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Bossie 0 0 0 0 0 Ouellette 1 4

Edwards 2 10 2 2 7 DiPompo 1 4 2

B. Miles 3 6 0 2 6 Wells 3 11 9

Anderson 0 1 0 0 0 Farrington 1 5

Hill 3 7 4 4 10 Kelvey 4 16 2 10

Bartlett 0 0 0 0 0 Charles 2 3 6

Socoby 8 18 15 18 32 Fry 6 16 13

Duff 0 0 2 2 2

A. Miles 2 5 1 2 5

Campbell 1 1 0 0 2

Lloyd 0 0 0 0 0

York 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 19 48 24 30 64 Totals 18 56 12 49

Houlton 17 23 42 64

Jay 12 21 43 49

3-pt. goals ? Houlton (2-12): Socoby 1-4, Edwards 1-5, B. Miles 0-3; Jay (5-22): Wells 3-9, Farrington 1-1, Ouellette 1-2, DiPompo 0-2, Fry 0-3, Kelvey 0-5