TOPSHAM – The Oxford Hills Vikings may not have the best outside shooting in the KVAC this season, but they served notice Saturday in their opener at Mt. Ararat that rebounds and points in the paint will be tough to get for their opponents.
Mike Foley and Chris McVety pulled down 10 boards each and Ben Ryerson led the Vikings with 20 points, as Oxford Hills upended the Eagles 59-47 in the teams’ first game of the season.
“They are a good shooting team,” Oxford Hills assistant coach Doug Craib said of Mt. Ararat. “I think one of the things that we did, we talked about, was getting to their shooters sooner, so that down the stretch it was a little more difficult for them to get their shots off. They still managed to get shots off, but they weren’t open looks.”
Mt. Ararat (0-1) will rely heavily on its shooting game this season, and a poor night from beyond the arc Saturday just wasn’t going to cut it.
“We needed to shoot well, and we need to keep the rebound differential to a certain point,” said Mt. Ararat coach Aaron Watson. “We talk about that a lot in stats. We figured that maybe eight, if we were within eight rebounds, that the game would probably be close as long as we shot well, but we shot 4-for-23 from the 3-point line, and the rebound differential was 16. A lot of that had to do with poor shot selection in the fourth quarter and no positioning, and we had no one in on the boards.”
Despite their outside shooting woes, the Eagles hung around in the fourth quarter, thanks in large part to Adam Paine, who had 23 points and five boards. In the fourth, Paine scored six straight points to slice an 11-point Oxford Hills lead to five. Andy Pelletier followed with a 3-pointer a minute later to close the gap to four, but the Eagles would get no closer.
As time wound down, Ryerson took over at the foul line, hitting 8 of 10 free throws in the final 3:08 to ice the game.
“Coach Graffam wanted to get the ball in my hands,” said Ryerson. “He knows I can make them. I missed a couple of front ends, but then they started falling. I just wanted the ball. I know I can make them.”
The game started slowly, with both teams searching for a rhythm in their season opener, and the score remained tied at 11 after the first eight minutes.
In the second quarter, after Mt. Ararat took a 13-12 lead with 6:10 to play, Oxford Hills (1-0) went on a 17-6 run to close out the half for a 10-point halftime lead.
“We started taking care of the ball better at that point,” said Craib. “I think we can win some games this year if we cut down on the turnovers. Down the stretch, I think we did a good job of that, and part of that, too, is getting the ball into the right hands, the right foul shooters.”
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