AUGUSTA – When the Jay Tigers look back on the 2004 Class C championship game, they won’t think about time running out or their luck running out.

The Tigers just ran out of people to guard Mark Socoby.

The 6-6 sophomore Socoby scored 13 of his game-high 32 points in the fourth quarter to lead Houlton to its first state championship with a 64-49 victory over Jay Saturday night at the Augusta Civic Center.

Plagued by foul trouble, their two leading scorers, Sean Fry and Marc Kelvey of the Tigers (19-3) missed their first nine shots in the fourth and managed just six points in the period. The Shiretowners put together a 16-2 run before Marc Kelvey put back his own miss for Jay’s first field goal with 1:31 to go.

They also had no answer for Socoby on the defensive end, since Kelvey and Fry shared that assignment for most of the game.

“Foul trouble was the key. We didn’t handle it,” said Jay coach Mike Child. “Socoby comes to play in a big ballgame like this. He’s a sophomore and he plays like a senior. We did a good job on him in the first half, but he had 18 free throws (for the game, of which he made 15). That’s more than we can allow him.””

Fry led the Tigers with 13 points and nine rebounds. Kelvey added 12 points and Justin Wells nine.

Jay started out with Kelvey guarding Socoby, but two quick fouls on the senior forced them to switch Fry over to the Shires’ super soph. The move actually paid off for Jay, as Socoby scored his final field goal of the half with inside of a minute left in the first quarter. Houlton, nevertheless, went 10-for-12 from the line and held a 17-12 lead at the end of one.

“When you can’t find ways to score, you’ve got to try something else. I tried taking it to the basket hoping to draw some contact,” Socoby said. “(Kelvey and Fry) are real good players, so when you can get those guys on the bench with foul trouble, it makes it that much easier.”

“Kelvey getting a couple of quick fouls kind of took us out of our rhythm, then we put Sean on him and the next think you know they’re blowing whistles on Sean,” Child said. “We didn’t play good enough defense, and the foul trouble took our aggressiveness away.”

Socoby’s cold shooting proved contagious in the second quarter, as the Shires (20-2) shot 0-for-10 from the field. Jay (2-for-14) didn’t fare much better, but a Wells 3-pointer and a pair of Jacob Farrington free throws allowed the Tigers to pull within two, 23-21, at the half.

“We were getting some good shots in the first half. We just couldn’t get them to go down,” Houlton coach Sean Callahan said. “Their defense was really sagging. We’d get the ball inside and there’d be four giants around us, so I felt we had to get the ball outside and take some open 3s.”

Jay quickly tied it on a Fry hoop 44 seconds into the second half, but the 6-5 senior drew a gasp from Tiger fans when he went down in a heap immediately afterwards with an ankle injury.

Jay seemed to come alive with its leading scorer in the locker room getting medical attention. A trey by Wells and a Ryan DiPompo layup off a Wells steal gave Jay a 30-25 lead with 4:52 left in the third. The Tigers got another boost when Fry returned from the dressing room and checked back into the game with 4:30 left, taking their biggest lead of the game on a Zach Charles hoop that made it 38-29 with 3:26 left.

Things began to go downhill for the Tigers, though, when Kelvey and Fry each drew their fourth fouls within three minutes of each other. Houlton closed out the quarter strong and pulled within one on Socoby’s 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“We outlasted them,” Callahan said.