LEWISTON – The Lewiston Blue Devils found themselves in a precarious position in the third quarter of Friday night’s KVAC tilt with Brunswick.

The scoreboard showed the Devils down nine points with just over three minutes left in the period, and Brunswick’s Ralph Mims, considered by many to be the best player in the state, hadn’t really gone off yet.

Mims eliminated all doubt in the final 180 seconds of the quarter, with a tour de force, personal 10-0 run to break the game wide open for the Dragons, who went on to a 68-48 win.

Mims (27 points, 15 rebounds, five steals, four assists) got his teammates involved early, then took over in the late stages of the third quarter to keep Brunswick (3-0) undefeated.

“To be honest with you, we’re trying to get him to be a little more selfish,” said Brunswick coach Todd Hanson. “Sometimes he takes himself out of the game just because he defers a little bit. This year, we told him he can’t defer to anybody.”

“I have to get my teammates involved first,” Mims said. “If I have it, I’m going to go for it. But if I don’t have it, I have teammates capable of knocking down shots.”

Phil Warren (10 points, eight rebounds) and Kevin Scully (nine points, eight boards), among others, were knocking down the shots for the Dragons, who got off to a blistering start, making 11 of their first 17 attempts. Brunswick shot 52 percent for the game, while Lewiston made just 36 percent from the field. The Dragons also outrebounded the Devils by a 40-20 margin.

“I’ve been more discouraged with other games than I was this one,” Lewiston coach Jason Fuller said. “This one, we played hard. The effort was where I want it. Now we’ve just got to tweak a couple of things.”

David Labonte led Lewiston with 14 points. Bryce Bryant chipped in with nine.

The Blue Devils (1-2) never really got into the flow offensively and the Dragons made them pay early, sprinting out to a 7-0 lead less than 90 seconds in. Lewiston battled back within one late in the first quarter, but Brunswick closed the period with a 10-2 run to emerge with a nine-point cushion.

The Dragons might have put some more distance between themselves and Lewiston but for some sloppiness with the basketball (16 first-half turnovers). Lewiston stayed within shouting distance, but could never convert Brunswick’s miscues into a sustained run. The Devils trailed by eight at the half.

“We’re having a hard time evaluating when the 3’s there and when the penetration’s there,” Fuller said. “We’re not getting enough stuff going to the rim and that’s hurting us. Team’s are running at us (to defend the 3) and we’re not going by to create opportunities off penetration.”

“I thought in the third quarter we did a really good job of getting post touches to Ralph and Warren and Scully,” Hanson said. “Our offense just seemed to click when we did that.”

Mims started to really click after Lewiston’s Ryan Bellemare (eight points) made it a nine-point game late in the third. The 6-5 senior was fouled while nailing a trey from the top of the key, then converted the free throw to put the cushion into double digits for good. He followed that with a putback of his own miss, a layup off a Justin Gauvin steal, and then another bunny off a steal of his own to make it a 53-34 game at the end of three.

“He went off. What are you going to do? The kid’s that good,” Fuller said. “We made him work tonight. It wasn’t easy for him. But we allowed him to get into the paint and once he’s in there, there’s nothing you can do. He’s strong, he jumps, he’s agile so he can avoid contact.”

“This is a hard place to play in, and for us to come out with a win, I think that shows us something and the young kids on our team know we’re capable of doing something,” Mims said.

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