LEWISTON – A lot of things can change the momentum in a basketball game – a big defensive play, a circus shot, even halftime.

The intermission swung the momentum in Saturday’s KVAC clash between Oxford Hills and Lewiston. It allowed the Vikings time to recover from some sloppy play late in the first half, come out strong for the second and pull away from the Blue Devils, 68-53.

Leif Kothe scored 11 of his game-high 27 points and Matt McDonnell dropped in eight of his 14 points in the third quarter to lead the Vikings (6-1). David Labonte led Lewiston (4-3) with 20 points.

“That’s a feisty little team, and you’re going to have to handle their pressure in order to beat them, and we finally got so we did in the the second half,” said Oxford Hills coach Scott Graffam.

“It’s pick your poison (with Oxford Hills),” said Lewiston coach Jason Fuller. “You either give up the 3 or you give up the layup because they’re going to go by you. That’s what makes them so difficult to defend. And they do a good job recognizing their shooters. When a guy’s hot, they make sure he gets his shots.”

The Blue Devils recovered from some early shooting woes that put them down by as many as 13 in the second quarter by turning up the heat defensively in the final minutes of the period. Oxford Hills handled Lewiston’s full-court pressure fairly well until the end of the half, when several Viking turnovers and hoops from George Foisy and Jon Fournier triggered an 8-0 Lewiston run to cut the halftime deficit to 27-24.

“We really had a big letdown there at the end of the second quarter,” said Graffam. “We had to have a little fireside chat at halftime about the turnovers at the end of the second quarter.”

“We had no turnovers in the first half and then everything started to go downhill,” said senior guard Josh Powell, who tallied seven rebounds and seven assists. “Graf talked to us at halftime and just told us to relax and handle the pressure.”

A quick three-point play by Kothe to start the second half helped get the Vikes settled in. McDonnell then drilled three jumpers in a row, the last two from beyond the arc, to put them up 40-30. Kothe followed with a hot streak of his own, making three straight jumpers to widen the gap to 14 points as Oxford Hills hit on seven of its first nine attempts.

“We were able to not only turn it over but attack (the pressure) and we got some pretty good looks,” Graffam said.

After creating some offense in the first half with good ball movement, Lewiston tried to force the tempo to get some easy buckets of its own. But with Oxford Hills’ taking better care of the ball (15 turnovers for the game) and the halfcourt offense stagnating, the Devils couldn’t keep up in the second half.

“We just began watching guys go one-on-one and we can’t win that way,” Fuller said. “When we move the ball we’re okay. We did a good job of that in the second quarter. But then we just stood around and watched.”