SOUTH PARIS – We’re still a week away from the point in the Class A basketball season when every loss is final, every moral victory less enthralling, every mistake magnified.
For now, though, let the satisfied smiles, light-hearted locker room banter and mutual admiration reign. Hard to tell who was happier after Oxford Hills outdueled Lewiston, 60-54, in a playoff-quality KVAC boys’ clash Monday afternoon.
Oxford Hills (14-3) clinched a berth in Saturday’s league championship game against Brunswick in Auburn. With a win Wednesday at Leavitt, the Vikings would sew up the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the Eastern A tournament.
“And it looks like Lewiston won’t be in our bracket, thank God,” said Oxford Hills coach Scott Graffam.
Smooth playmaker Matt McDonnell erupted for 20 points and six rebounds in the final home game of his career. More importantly, his five second-half steals guarded a six-point Vikings halftime lead that ballooned to 15 late in the fourth quarter.
But Lewiston never yielded to frustration, crashing the boards and welcoming floor burns until the final horn. The Blue Devils (11-6) have clinched a home preliminary game and could climb the ladder as high as No. 5 with a season-ending win over Twin Cities rival Edward Little.
“I’m so happy. They beat us, but we played well,” said Lewiston coach Jason Fuller. “That’s all I could ask.”
Matching McDonnell feathery jump shot for feathery jump shot, Lewiston senior David Labonte finished with 24 points, six steals and four assists. Labonte nailed six 3-pointers.
“He’s just a great shooter, and this is a shooter’s gym,” Fuller said. “I knew he was going have a great game. You can’t give him any space.”
Oxford Hills’ greatest success at stopping Labonte came when McDonnell clogged the passing lanes, preventing the 5-foot-9 gunner from getting the ball and triggering a fast break in the other direction.
Labonte dropped four treys in the first half. Together with junior sixth-man Jon Fournier, who scored seven of his 11 points before the break, Labonte rallied Lewiston from an early double-digit deficit and gave the Blue Devils a shooter’s chance.
Oxford Hills led 17-7 with 2:43 remaining in the first quarter but enjoyed only a 34-28 margin at intermission.
“You give Labonte any kind of opening, baby, and it’s all over,” Graffam said. “I think our guys defending him had a tendency to jump out to the 3-point line and stop. He hit about three of em that way. You have to get right in his face and make him drive to the basket.”
Oxford Hills went 3-for-12 from the floor in the third, but Thomas Kothe and Ben Ryerson each nailed a 3 and increased the Vikings’ edge to seven, 44-37.
Kothe nailed another 3-pointer off a McDonnell steal to ignite a 12-2 run in the fourth. McDonnell later knocked down a deuce from the left baseline. After a rejection by Kothe, McDonnell located Corey Saunders for an easy lay-up and a 56-41 lead with 2:37 to play.
“I think we’re on a good run going into the tournament,” McDonnell said. “We wanted to shut Labonte down. He got his 3s, but they were kind of scattered out.”
Kothe finished with 12 points and Saunders had 10 for the Vikings.
George Foisy and Tyson Morgan drew Fuller’s praise, along with Labonte, for Lewiston’s perimeter defense.
“We did a nice job with man-to-man defense. We contested most of their shots,” Fuller said. “They didn’t shoot the lights out like they can.”
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