CORINTH, Maine — The Old Town Coyotes ratcheted up their defense over the final three periods Wednesday night to secure a 63-45 Class B North boys basketball victory over Central.
The win was the fifth straight since an opening-night loss for coach Brian McDormand’s club, now ranked third in the Heal Points behind undefeated Orono and Mount Desert Island, the only team to defeat Old Town.
Central, making the transition back to Class B after reaching the Eastern C semifinals last winter, shot 8 of 15 from the field while taking a 17-16 lead at the end of the first period.
But the 3-4 Red Devils shot just 31 percent (12 of 39) the rest of the way as Old Town largely reverted to man-to-man defense that not only contested Central’s shooters but did so without sending them to the line — Central made three of its six free throws for the game.
“I just liked the composure after the first quarter,” said McDormand. “We weren’t strong defensively in the first quarter. We missed some assignments, then they started breaking our half-court trap and getting into the lane so we backed off that.
“We’ve been pretty solid with our man-to-man since the beginning of the season.”
Senior forward Andre Miller paced the Coyotes with 20 points and nine rebounds, doing much of his work near the basket after teammate Chad Bartlett helped spread the Central defense with four 3-pointers during the first half.
“We’ve been trying to go inside and Andre’s been very compliant with that,” said McDormand. “We need to run offense to the inside and be closer to the basket so when we’re not shooting the ball well we’re able to rebound.”
Old Town also got a big night from guard Kaleb Gifford, who scored 16 points as well as being a defensive catalyst, while Bartlett added 15 points on 5 of 11 shooting from beyond the arc and Drew Coulombe contributed eight points and six assists.
Old Town took the lead for good when Miller made a layup off a feed from Jake Jarvis and a jumper from the lane to give the Coyotes a 31-27 halftime edge.
A fast-break basket by Central’s Caleb Speed cut the gap to 31-29 before Old Town went on a 13-3 run that featured five baskets from the paint and Bartlett’s fifth 3-pointer to build a 44-32 lead midway through the third quarter.
“When we run our offense we get layups and threes, but sometimes the guys get impatient and want to go one-on-one,” said McDormand, whose team shot 42 percent (24 of 57) from the field. “That’s just something we’ve got to keep working on, to go to our strength, which is making open shots.”
Senior forward Kyle Ham led Central with 10 points and six rebounds, while Trevor Macomber had eight points and six rebounds. Andrew Prescott also scored eight points for coach Riley Donovan’s club.
