ORONO — The visiting Ellsworth High School Eagles basketball team saw a deluge of 3-pointers by rival Orono leave them staring at a 24-10 deficit after the first period of play on Saturday afternoon.
But senior Brayden King scored 19 of his team-high 21 points in the second half and junior Jackson Barry produced nine points and seven rebounds after the intermission to lead the Eagles to a 68-58 victory in an entertaining affair in front of a sizeable crowd.
Ellsworth improved to 3-0 while defending two-time state champ Orono fell to 2-1.
The two perennial Class B North contenders have met in the tournament the last three years, with Orono winning the last two meetings in the semifinals and the regional title game and Ellsworth triumphing in the 2022 tourney final.
King had three assists to go with his 21 points and Barry finished with 13 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Junior Dawson Curtis produced 12 points and 10 rebounds, and senior Hollis Grindal chipped in with 12 points, seven rebounds and two assists.
Junior Brady Hews paced the Riots with a game-high 22 points to go with three rebounds. Junior Bergen Soderberg scored 11 points; senior Will Francis had nine points, four rebounds and two assists; and junior Matt Allen came off the bench and registered eight points.
Barry said Ellsworth Coach Matt Mattson “got into us and lit a fire under our butts at halftime.
“After that, we started playing more as a team instead of as individuals. We started moving the ball around and playing good defense,” Barry said.
And he credited King with being a difference-maker.
“He went insane. He’s a helluva player,” said Barry.
“My teammates set me up every single time. It’s all because of them,” said King, who went 6-for-8 from the floor in the second half and made all six of his free throws.
Hews and Soderberg each had a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter and Johnny Jones and Kason Bagley had one apiece as the Riots went 6-for-11 from long distance to build their 14-point lead.
But the Riots were just 2-for-8 from long range in the second period, and the Eagles not only chipped away at the deficit, they actually took a 30-28 lead with 33 seconds left in the half before Soderberg closed out the half with a three to make it 31-30.
King and Barry went to work in the third period, and Ellsworth outscored Orono 20-10 to take a lead it would never relinquish.
Barry scored off a baseline drive from a Grindal pass to give Ellsworth the lead for good at 34-33 and King followed with an acrobatic floater from the paint.
After Francis tipped in an offensive rebound, Grindal sank a free throw and King scored a traditional 3-point play off his drive in the lane to make it 40-35.
Following a short jumper by Allen, the Eagles finished the quarter on a 10-4 run to take a 50-41 lead into the final period.
King and Barry each had five points in the run.
The lightning-quick and determined Hews, who was playing with four fouls, did everything he could to rally his team in the fourth quarter as he scored 12 points to keep his team within striking distance.
But Orono couldn’t get any closer than six points as the Eagles always had a response to Orono’s spurts to prevent the Riots from getting any closer.
King had five points in the fourth quarter but also fed Curtis and Barry for important baskets underneath.
Curtis had six points in the final period.
The taller Eagles dominated the boards, outrebounding Orono 31-17.
“The two big differences was their ability to penetrate offensively and our giving up [too many] second shots,” said Orono coach Ed Kohtala. “Those go hand-in-hand. If they are beating your guys [to the rim], you have to get help [on the shooter] and it’s really hard to box out.
“But there were a lot of encouraging signs. We needed a test and we definitely got a test,” said Kohtala. “We’ll grow from it and be better next week. We’re still learning about ourselves.”
After going 8-for-20 beyond the 3-point arc in the first half, Orono went just 2-for-8 from long distance in the second half as the Eagles did a better job defending their threes.
Ellsworth coach Mattson said they switched up their defenses slightly to try to make life more difficult for Hews and Soderberg from long range.
“We took away the high post screen they were doing,” explained Mattson. “They have one of their bigs run a high post screen and they run Hews or Bergen off that screen. When they have time to shoot, they’re money. They were feeding off each other.
“I don’t know if it was as much as us stopping threes as much as it was us playing really good defense that was making them miss a few. And then their confidence wasn’t there and once we started rolling, it was hard [to stop us],” said Mattson.
Mattson also praised King and Barry for their performances.
“Brayden had two fouls in the first two minutes of that game so that’s a testament to him. He played the second quarter with two fouls and never picked up another foul. He has a motor that doesn’t quit. He gives us a lot of energy so having him play was important,” said Mattson, who pointed out that his team was missing four players including one starter and another who started the last game.
“Everyone had to step up and Jackson did a really good job. He’s not used to playing that many minutes. He has great hands, he’s a good rebounder and he finishes under the hoop relatively well,” Mattson said.
Orono will host Bucksport Monday at 7 p.m. while Ellsworth will visit Old Town for a Tuesday game at 7 p.m.