BANGOR, Maine — Logan Rogerson wondered if he’d ever get a shot to fall deep into Saturday afternoon’s boys basketball game between his Brewer Witches and rival Bangor Ram’s at Red Barry Gymnasium.
The junior guard missed his first 12 attempts through more than three quarters of play, including seven 3-point tries.
But Rogerson finally got untracked — initially with the most basic of shots — and went on to score all 10 of his points in the final 5:05 of play as Brewer emerged with a 54-50 victory.
“I was struggling, but I told myself to just keep shooting,” Rogerson said. “I got a little down on myself, but coach [Clayton Blood] told me at halftime I had a minute to gather myself to get back into the game.”
The Witches, who made six straight free throws over the final 40 seconds to preserve its second straight victory over Bangor, improved their record to 6-5 and rose to fifth in the Eastern Maine Class A Heal point ratings, while the ninth-seeded Rams fell to 4-7.
Brewer’s third victory in its last four games also represented a solid bounce-back from an 84-47 loss earlier in the week to Hampden Academy, a team the Witches had defeated on Dec. 5.
“Anybody can beat any team in this league at this point in time,” said Brewer junior forward Matt Pushard, who paced the Witches against Bangor with 15 points — all in the first half — as well as 19 rebounds and six assists, “so you’ve got to make sure you come ready to play every minute of every game.”
Bangor took its only lead of the second half when Andrew Hillier hit a step-back 3-pointer from the right wing to give the Rams a 33-32 edge with 4:01 left in the third quarter.
That advantage, however, lasted 23 seconds when Carter Smith countered with a 3-pointer from the left side off a skip pass by Rogerson over the Bangor defense to restore Brewer to a 35-33 advantage.
Brewer’s lead was just 39-38 after a mid-range jumper by Bangor’s Liam Harrigan with 5:21 left in the game before Rogerson finally found his shooting touch.
First he cut along the baseline to take a high-post pass from the triple-teamed Pushard and convert a reverse layup, then he picked up a loose ball on the Witches’ next possession and hit a 3-pointer from the left wing to push Brewer’s lead to 44-38 with 4:16 to play.
Rogerson added two free throws after a Bangor turnover to make it an eight-point game with 3:21 left.
“When I first made that layup from Matt that started getting me going and then when I hit the 3 that settled me down for sure,” Rogerson said.
Bangor did creep back within a single possession when Harrigan converted a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 30.6 seconds left, but Rogerson and Jared St. Thomas each hit two free throws on Brewer’s ensuing two possessions to offset a late 3-pointer by Bangor’s Ethan Dorman.
St. Thomas finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds for Brewer, while Smith also scored 11 points.
Harrigan led Bangor with 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field, while Dane Johnson scored 12 points, Hillier had nine points and eight rebounds and Dorman finished with eight points and a team-high 11 boards.
The first 5½ minutes of the game featured seven lead changes before Bangor moved out to an 11-9 lead as Dorman scored on a drive and Ian Nagle converted a pick-and-roll layup off a Dorman assist with 1:32 left in the opening period.
Pushard then showed off his mid-range — and long-range — shooting touch in the second quarter, with his second 3-pointer of the period giving Brewer a 20-18 lead with five minutes left before halftime.
Pushard made 4 of 5 shots en route to a 10-point second quarter, and his high-post feed to Smith for a layup that gave the Witches their largest lead of the opening two periods at 27-20 with 1:11 left in the half.
Harrigan and Justin Smith countered with late field goals by Bangor, which was within 28-24 by intermission despite making just one of 11 3-point attempts.
The Rams made four of 23 long-range shots for the game.
“They’re a good 3-point shooting team, so that’s what we focused on,” Rogerson said. “We struggled a bit offensively, but we’re a pretty good defensive team most of the time and our defense helped us, and hitting our foul shots at the end definitely won us the game.”
