OLD TOWN, Maine —The Orono Red Riots seemingly withstood Old Town’s best shot Tuesday night, rallying from a game-opening 9-0 deficit to finally capture a one-point lead midway through the third quarter in front of a capacity crowd at MacKenzie Gymnasium.
But the Coyotes found plenty in reserve for crunch time, retaking the lead nearly instantly and pulling away to a 65-53 victory in a showdown between the top two-ranked boys basketball teams in Class B North.
Old Town will ascend to the No. 1 spot with the victory, its eighth straight since a season-opening loss to Mount Desert Island.
Coach Brian McDormand’s club now has won 36 of its last 39 games overall dating back to a 10-game winning streak at the end of its 2014 state championship run.
“We’ve been playing well,” said Chad Bartlett, one of 10 seniors on Old Town’s active roster.
Bartlett, a 6-foot-3 forward, scored a game-high 21 points — including four points and two key offensive rebounds immediately after Orono took the lead to fuel a 7-0 run that restored Old Town to a 44-37 advantage by the final minute of the third quarter.
The Coyotes took a 47-41 lead into the final period before a fast-break basket by Kaleb Gifford and a 3-pointer from super sub Jake Jarvis helped spark a run of six unanswered points that stretched Old Town’s lead to 53-41.
“Our balance was really strong, and we did a good job of hitting from the perimeter,” McDormand said. “We got out and ran early, and defensively we got some stops early in the game to get the lead.
“Their zone made us look ugly early in the third quarter, but we kept our composure, and Chad and Jake were big for us,” he added.
Orono got no closer than eight points the rest of the way while suffering its second straight loss after seven consecutive victories to open the season.
“We didn’t stick to our game plan,” said Orono coach Jason Coleman. “We got caught up in the crowd, and because of that it became a lot more of a one-on-one game than we wanted.”
Junior guard Ryan Hoogterp added 12 points for Old Town before being sidelined with foul trouble for most of the second half. Gifford and Jarvis each added 11 points, with Jarvis’ total coming on 5-of-5 shooting from the field in the second half.
“[Jarvis] was where we needed to be when we needed him to be there,” said Bartlett.
The Coyotes also got a big effort from senior point guard Drew Coulombe, who scored five points and dished out 12 assists to help account for nearly half of Old Town’s 27 field goals, while forward Andre Miller scored five points and grabbed a team-best eight rebounds.
Imao Woldring, a 6-foot-7 senior exchange student from The Netherlands, came off the bench to pace Orono with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including a 3-for-5 effort from beyond the 3-point arc.
Junior point guard Nate DeSisto added 13 points and Kam Hines contributed nine points and nine rebounds for the Red Riots, who lost starting forward Keenan Collett to a left ankle injury 2:17 into the second quarter.
