ELLSWORTH, Maine — Neither the Ellsworth’s nor Hermon’s boys basketball team played or practiced much during the last week — victims, like virtually all other teams in Maine, of Mother Nature’s late-season intrusion.
But the host Eagles rounded back into playing form much quicker when the two Big East Conference rivals squared off at Katsiaficas Gymnasium on Tuesday night, moving out to a 17-4 lead and cruising to a 45-34 victory.
Ellsworth, ranked fifth in Eastern Maine Class B, is now 11-5 while sixth-ranked Hermon dips to 12-4 after having its six-game winning streak halted.
Ellsworth was keyed by patient offense and a sagging man-to-man defense that limited the Hawks to 33 percent shooting from the field and yielded few offensive rebounds.
That defense keyed on Hawks’ junior guard Tyler Beaton and senior forward Joe Plummer and held Hermon’s top two scorers to 13 combined points — including just two in the first half as Ellsworth built a 21-10 advantage.
Alex Braley had the defensive assignment against Beaton, while Cooper Henderson was the primary defender against Plummer.
“We wanted to sag off some of their players because Beaton is a heck of a player, and the Plummer kid is very good, too,” Ellsworth coach Peter Austin said. “That was our game plan coming in, and when we played them up to Hermon (a 46-40 Ellsworth win on Dec. 10) they killed us on the offensive boards. I don’t think we gave up too many offensive rebounds tonight.”
Bruce St. Peter provided Ellsworth its main offensive spark, shooting six-of-nine from the field and six-of-seven from the free-throw line en route to a game-high 18 points go to with six rebounds.
“This team likes to grind it out, and for the last six games Bruce has been playing really well,” Austin said. “For one, we’re getting him more touches, and he feels more comfortable with the ball now.”
Most of St. Peter’s field goals came on moves near the basket and midrange jumpers, but the 6-foot-4-inch junior forward also showed versatility in his game with a pair of drives from the high post to the rim.
“I’ve been really working hard trying to put in the extra effort to make that move to the basket and stretch my game more,” St. Peter said.
Sophomore point guard Bryce Harmon added 11 points for Ellsworth while junior forward Nick Bagley grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.
Beaton paced Hermon offensively with 11 points, while freshman guard Keenan Marseille added nine, all in the fourth quarter as Hermon tried to rally but could get no closer than nine at 43-34 on Marseille’s 3-pointer with 42 seconds remaining.
Ellsworth’s defense relegated Hermon’s offense to the perimeter throughout the game, particularly during the first half when the Hawks made just four of 21 field-goal tries.
Ellsworth’s offense was slowed early by turnovers, but a follow-up shot by St. Peter, a 3-pointer by Braley and two Henderson free throws gave the Eagles a 7-0 lead before Ryan Kelley got Hermon on the board with a low-post basket nearly four minutes into the game.
That was followed by six more Ellsworth points, two apiece by Henderson, Harmon and St. Peter, to make it 13-2 before Hermon’s T.J. Verrill’s jumper with a foot on the 3-point line pulled the Hawks within 13-4 at the end of the opening quarter.
A 15-foot-jumper by Harmon and a drive to the basket by St. Peter extended the Ellsworth lead to 17-4. That margin grew to as much as 17 points at 27-10 early in the third period as Harmon scored on a nice interior pass from St. Peter, who then took a Henderson lob feed for a layup and cashed in a Lukas Firestone assist for a layup.
A seven-point third quarter by Beaton helped rally Hermon within 31-19 by the end of the period before Marseille made all four of his fourth-quarter shots to get the Hawks within single digits but no closer.
