ORONO, Maine — The undermanned Orono Red Riots were poised to upset defending Class B state champion Old Town on Tuesday night — only to have the Coyotes’ Mitchell Cole swat those hopes away in the game’s final seconds.
Cole, a 6-foot-4-inch senior forward, blocked what would have been the go-ahead layup with 18 seconds left, and teammate Eric Hoogterp followed with two free throws to help Old Town remain unbeaten with a 38-35 survival of Orono in the latest renewal of their rivalry.
Old Town (6-0) was clinging to a 36-35 lead it took on a Cole free throw with 1:05 left, and Orono followed a timeout with a patient bid to work the ball inside.
Finally the Red Riots got the ball behind the Coyotes’ defense, but Cole reacted quickly enough to swat the layup attempt off the backboard and preserve that smallest of leads.
“I saw (Orono’s) Keenan Collett drop a little bit and I needed to get down a little more,” said Cole. “Then I saw the ball out of the corner of my eye so I jumped as high as I could.
“I definitely knew it was a tight situation so I knew I had to block it or foul or something. Coach (Brian McDormand) tells us to try to block the shot or foul in the last few seconds and I knew we didn’t have much time so I had to do something about it.”
It was about as good a shot as Orono could have imagined getting in such a situation, only to be denied by Cole’s quick reaction.
“It looked like a layup that was going (in) and then out of nowhere he just made a play,” said McDormand. “He’s a freak athletically so he’s always got that ability. He gets in foul trouble when he tries to block shots straight on, but when he comes from the side he’s pretty tough.”
Hoogterp grabbed the loose ball after the block and was fouled, leading to a pair of free throws that gave Old Town a three-point lead with 14 seconds left.
Orono had one final chance but Damian Heeger’s 3-pointer from beyond the top of the key missed as Old Town stretched its winning streak to 16 games dating to last winter’s tournament run.
“We couldn’t get any up-tempo really going against them, and (Orono coach) Jason (Coleman) knows we need to run,” said McDormand. “But defensively we hung in there for the most part, that kept us in the game.”
Hoogterp paced Old Town offensively with 16 points, including a 6-of-8 effort from the free-throw line during the fourth quarter.
Adam Richardson added seven points and seven rebounds for the Coyotes during a halfcourt-oriented contest with few fast-break opportunities.
“We just didn’t come out focused, and I think there was a lot of pressure on us because we knew they were going to come out strong and try to take us out of our run-and-gun game,” said Cole.
Collett, a sophomore forward, totaled 11 points and 10 rebounds while Heeger added eight points for a Class C Orono team missing three starters — with injuries to Nate DeSisto and Alik Espling and Jackson Coutts away on a family trip.
“We were down three key kids and we had a shot to tie it at the end and they’re the undefeated, reigning Class B state champs,” said Coleman, whose team fell to 3-3. “We were talking in our last timeout that make the shot or not, this was a heck of an effort.”
Orono won the hustle war early in the contest while gaining a 13-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
A 3-pointer by Chad Bartlett gave Old Town its first lead at 14-13 with 5:38 left in the half but Orono refused to go away and led 19-18 at intermission and 27-26 through three quarters.
Orono still led 31-29 after a fadeaway baseline jumper by Heeger with 5:37 left in the game before Old Town scored six unanswered points to take its biggest lead on a drive by Cole, a 3-pointer by Kaleb Gifford and a Hoogterp free throw that concluded the run with 2:52 left.
Layups by Jake Koffman and Collette tied the game at 35-35 with 1:15 to play.
