By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – By halftime of Tuesday’s KVAC tilt between Brunswick and Mt. Blue, Brunswick coach Todd Hanson had three starters in foul trouble, a two-point deficit and one Mt. Blue big man dominating the paint.

One halftime adjustment took care of all three problems.

Brunswick went zone in the second half, shut out Mt. Blue center Ted Neil and pulled out a big 44-39 win.

“Initially (going zone) was to keep them out of foul trouble, but I think what it did in hindsight was really took Neil out of the game,” Hanson said. “He really hurt us when we tried to defend him in man.”

The Dragons (8-1) fronted Neil in the low post to deny the 6-6 senior the ball, then smothered him any time he did get it.

“We wanted to at least three-quarter him every time he was down there and make it difficult. When he got it, we wanted five guys to dig,” Hanson said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t do a lot of those things well in the first half, and when we tried to, guys fouled.”

Neil finished with a game-high 14 points, all in the first half. Doug Eichinger led Brunswick with 12.

“They did a good job keeping the ball away from (Neil) and obviously he’s our primary offensive weapon,” said Mt. Blue coach Jim Bessey. “We needed to step up and make a couple of jump shots and we just didn’t do that.”

Despite losing its No. 1 scoring option for the second half, Mt. Blue (6-4) still had a chance to tie the game late. Down 42-39 with the ball and eight seconds to play, the Cougars inbounded the ball hoping to set up Steve Wells for the game-tying 3-pointer, but a Mt. Blue player stepped out of bounds on the sideline before they could get the ball to Wells.

Slowed by the Brunswick zone, the Cougars attempted just 27 shots on the night and shot 41 percent.

“We were very patient offensively,” Bessey said. “The thinking there was that it was a two- or three-point game most of the way. Against them, you keep it close and take your chances toward the end.”

Mt. Blue took a 28-26 lead into halftime, thanks in large part to an 18-5 advantage at the free-throw line. Brunswick went from a mix of man and zone defense in the first half straight to the zone in the second and held the Cougars to just six field-goal attempts, no free throws, and five points.

“I felt like Mt. Blue really outplayed us and we were lucky to be down only two at the half,” Hanson said. “I told our guys that was a testament to them staying with it, and we felt like if we came out in the second half that we’d play much better.”

Travis O’Dell’s jumper from the left corner beat the buzzer to end the third and ended up giving the Dragons the lead for good at 35-33. Mt. Blue tried to change things up offensively by moving Neil into the high post, but could only shoot 2-for-7 from the field in the fourth quarter.

“We were trying to create more space on the perimeter with the idea being that maybe they would sag in and we would get a little bit better looks,” Bessey said. “We’ve got kids who normally shoot better than they did tonight. Maybe another game, it goes a little different.”