By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – David Labonte took his seat on the Lewiston bench with five minutes to play in Tuesday night’s game. He was visibly frustrated.

A minute before, Labonte rattled a three-point attempt off the back of the rim from the right wing and was at the time 1-for-5 from the field, with just a stray 3-pointer in the second quarter to show for his efforts.

The rest did him and his team some good.

Labonte started hitting everything in sight, nailing three consecutive threes and five more free throws to lead the Blue Devils to a 47-37 come-from-behind boys’ basketball win over Cony.

“He never really tried to force it when he wasn’t shooting well,” said Lewiston coach Jason Fuller of Labonte’s sudden spurt in the final quarter. “It was good to have him sit a bit, I think, but he’s done this time and time again. He did it in the fourth against EL to lead us to a win, and he did it in the third against Leavitt. He’s a big senior that knows how to play when it matters.”

Labonte admitted he was getting frustrated a bit in the fourth, saying he “just had to calm down,” and that he was “rattled.”

“I was starting to force it a bit,” added LaBonte. “I took a rest and then my teammates started setting screens that worked.”

The credit of shifting Labonte to a corner position instead of leaving him at the top of the key actually falls to teammate Jon Fournier, who had been playing in the left corner.

“After he nailed that first one, Jon just looked at me and said, leave him there,'” said Fuller.

“We had shut him down early,” said Cony coach Bruce Hunt. “He’s a great shooter and we hadn’t let him into the game.”

After hitting his second three of the game with 4:17 to play to pull the Blue Devils within two, Labonte went on a tear. Two more threes fell, one from each corner, and then he held the ball three straight times on inbound plays to force Cony to foul. He hit five of his six free-throw attempts to put the game out of reach.

Early in the game, Cony established a presence in the paint and outrebounded Lewiston 15-14 in the first half. Doug Joerss had six of those 15 for the Rams (9-6), and also scored eight of his team-high 15 in the opening half.

“He was so strong out there in the first half and into the second,” said Fuller. “We finally had to put a body on him and leave him there.”

The body? Chris Ford.

The result? Ford’s dominance on the boards throughout the fourth quarter. In all, Ford collected 12 rebounds, including seven in the fourth quarter.

“I think the biggest one came when (Labonte) missed one of the free throws late,” said Ford. “That helped us run some time off the clock.”

The Lewiston defense, which played well despite some bad early bounces, completely shut down the Cony offense in the final frame. Cony did not hit a single field goal in the final stanza, and had just three points, all from free throws.

“You can’t ask for anything better than no field goals in the fourth,” said Fuller. “We got a bit of help from the rebounds, and we finally got a couple of bounces to go our way.”

The shot of the night came as time expired in the first half. Cony had just scored to put the Rams ahead 23-16 when Ford grabbed the inbounds pass, dribbled for three steps and hoisted a shot from beyond half-court as the buzzer rang. The ball swished through the hoop for three points, pulling the Blue Devils back within four at the break.