BREWER, Maine — Last winter’s five-win campaign earned the Brewer High School boys basketball program little in the way of preseason respect this fall.
So the Witches are forcing the issue with determined play, as evidenced by their 61-58 outlasting of Oxford Hills of South Paris late Saturday afternoon.
While Oxford Hills was considered among the the elite squads in Eastern Maine Class A as this season began after advancing to last year’s regional championship game, Brewer returned an under-the-radar nucleus that still needed a signature win or two to announce its entry into the division’s upper echelon.
An opening-night victory over Hampden made an initial statement, but this latest win — spurred by junior forward Matt Pushard — presented additional evidence that coach Clayton Blood’s club is in this year’s tournament chase for the long haul.
“That’s a good team,” said Oxford Hills coach Scott Graffam, whose team fell to 4-4. “We played them this summer so we knew how good they are.”
Pushard helped Brewer equal its victory total from the 2013-14 season midway through its current schedule — the Witches are now 5-4 — with a dominant two-way performance.
He scored 24 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, and when Oxford Hills star Andrew Fleming tried to take control of the game during a tightly contested fourth quarter Pushard’s defense was equally competitive.
Fleming amassed 14 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots, but the 6-foot-6-inch junior was limited to a pair of fourth-quarter field goals as the Vikings rallied to tie the game but couldn’t break Brewer’s collective spirit.
“A couple of times (Fleming) threw it in, and I heard their coach yell to give it back to him,” said Pushard. “One time after they called timeout I heard him say, ‘We don’t want anyone else shooting it, we want him shooting it,’ so I knew that no matter what I was going to get hit by two or three screens every single possession.”
Junior guards Logan Rogerson (15 points) and Carter Smith (14) complemented Pushard’s scoring for Brewer, while junior forward Tyus Ripley scored 17 points for an Oxford Hills team that was outscored 13-5 and out-attempted 24-9 from the free-throw line.
“We do not drive the ball into the post, that was an issue for us and has been an issue for us,” said Graffam. “We didn’t get to the foul line and we didn’t shoot very many layups. We settled for jump shots and you’re not going to get to the foul line when you do that.”
Pushard set the offensive tone for Brewer with six first-quarter jumpers good for 13 points, with five mid-range shots followed by a 3-pointer from well beyond the top of the key that gave the Witches a 23-15 lead at the end of the period.
“In pregame we were shooting around and I felt it pretty good,” said Pushard, who made 10 of his 16 field-goal tries for the game. “A couple of other guys were talking to me, saying they’d never seen me make this many shots in pregame so I felt pretty good going into the game.”
But Pushard’s biggest basket came from just inches away early in the fourth quarter after Ripley converted an offensive rebound to forge a 47-47 tie — the game’s first stalemate since 4-4.
Pushard took a short pass across the lane from Rogerson, and despite finding himself under the basket he muscled in an over-the-shoulder shot and added the ensuing free throw to restore Brewer to the lead — for good.
“When I went to put it back up someone slapped me on the arm and I had to put it up backward,” he said.
And while Brewer never trailed in the contest, never were the Witches comfortable with their advantage.
“It was kind of hectic but we just had to keep our composure, which is what coach was stressing on the bench,” said Brewer senior guard Jared St. Thomas, who contributed seven points, eight rebounds and six assists to the victory.
That composure was tested late in the game — in part because Brewer made just 8 of 19 fourth-quarter free throws.
But the home-court advantage that has played a major role in aligning the balanced Eastern A standings through the first half of the schedule stayed true to form, with Brewer improving its record at home to 4-1 while Oxford Hills dipped to 1-4 on the road.
“It comes from winning,” said Blood, whose team played all its home games a year ago at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor while renovations were being completed at Brewer High School.
“It comes from having an attitude and composure. We were home today, and that brings energy and it also should bring composure. I think that makes a big difference.”
