LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — The MBR U17 boys basketball team from Maine began play at the AAU Division I 11th-Grade National Championships on Wednesday with a 71-57 victory over TBC Elite of Kentucky.
Andrew Fleming of Oxford Hills in South Paris led coach Rick Moore’s MBR club with 28 points, while Tom Coyne of Falmouth scored 14 points, Conar Moore of Hampden Academy added 13 and Jake Black of Hampden and Hunter Smith of Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft combined for 11 points.
MBR jumped out to an 18-16 lead at the end of the first quarter, thanks to eight early points by Conar Moore, and held a 34-28 halftime edge.
The Maine contingent took control during the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, when it stretched a five-point lead to a 14-point cushion behind the tandem of Fleming, Moore, Black, Coyne and Brendan McIntyre of Hampden.
MBR limited TBC Elite to 10 points in the fourth quarter.
Fleming scored 13 points in the final period, including nine from the free-throw line. MBR shot 29-of-37 (78 percent) from the line for the game.
TBC Elite has been having a strong summer, winning the East Coast championship at the Boo Williams Sports Complex, the Bluegrass Bash in Lexington, Kentucky, the Chicago Best Buy tourney championship and finishing among the top four teams in the Kentucky AAU state championships and the King James tournament in Akron, Ohio. TBC Elite entered the nationals with a 38-12 record this year and a 66-28 mark over the last two seasons.
MBR entered national tournament play coming off a 2-1 effort last weekend in Springfield, Massachusetts, with wins over teams from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Toronto, Ontario, Canada, around a loss to the New England Playaz, a team led by John Carroll, who served as head coach of the Boston Celtics for part of the 2003-04 season.
Other members of the MBR squad are Riley Robinson of Dirigo in Dixfield and Isaac Witham of Skowhegan.
MBR was scheduled to resume AAU pool play against an Ohio team on Thursday before facing a New York City-based team Friday.
