FARMINGTON – At 6-foot-1 apiece, Noah Paytas and Adam Gilbert are the closest thing Mt. Blue has to twin towers. But the junior frontcourt tandem towered over Old Town on Friday night.
Paytas and Gilbert combined for 38 points and led the Cougars to their best offensive performance of the year as they trounced the winless Indians, 89-62.
Old Town (0-4) elected to come out matching Mt. Blue’s up-tempo style and could only keep pace for a quarter. Mt. Blue (3-1) began the second quarter with a 13-2 run and, benefiting from 16 of Paytas’ game-high 22 points in the period, pulled away.
“I thought the tempo of the game was the big thing,” said Mt. Blue coach Jim Bessey. “They decided to play fast with us, and that probably helped us a great deal.”
The Indians also helped with 14 turnovers in the first half, which resulted in the Cougars taking more than twice as many shots while shooting 57 percent from the field.
“We got the ball inside very well,” Bessey said. “I was glad to see when they came out in zone early because we’ve seen a lot of that and we’ve spent considerable time working against it and we’re getting better against it because of that.”
The Cougars started out looking for Gilbert underneath, as he would usually find a crack in the zone and slide off the block or the baseline when the defender there reacted to penetration by Arthur Trask (12 points, five assists), John Moloney or Steve Wells (11 points, four steals). Gilbert showed he is now fully recovered from a broken hand suffered in preseason by pouring in 10 of his 16 points in the first quarter. Foul trouble plagued him against the Indians, though, and he had to head to the bench late in the first quarter.
Paytas was determined not to let that slow Mt. Blue’s inside game down.
“Me and Gilbert, we’re pretty much the size of the team,” Paytas said. “Once he sits down, I know I have to capitalize on what (the defense) is doing wrong, pick up the big man role when he’s out.”
While Paytas picked up where Gilbert left off down low, Isaiah Brathwaite (four points, five rebounds, six steals) provided a spark off the bench defensively to get the Cougars’ vaunted running game going.
Brathwaite kicked off the game-deciding run with a steal and layup, then finished it with a fastbreak layup off a rebound and long pass from Jon Cleary that made it 33-20. He later converted his fifth steal of the half into a layup for Paytas that helped the Cougars take a 52-33 lead into the locker room.
Paytas and Gilbert divvied up the points in the paint in the third quarter and Mt. Blue never allowed the Indians within less than 16 points the rest of the way.
“They talk about our height and everything, but what they don’t talk about is our speed and athleticism,” Paytas said. “We have a lot of it, and speed works a lot better than height.”
Logan Bouchard led Old Town with 22 points, while Travis Shaw added 14 points and seven rebounds.
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