GRAY – It’s finally a good year to be a Patriot in Gray-New Gloucester, too.

After starting the season with eight straight losses, these young Patriots found the win column Friday night with a workmanlike effort against Fryeburg Academy, 52-41.

“We don’t have a lot of depth and we’re young, so we’re bound to hit bumps in the road and there’s a learning curve,” said G-NG coach Scott Flagg, who has just one senior on his roster and two sophomores in the starting five. “I’m really proud of them coming out tonight and putting on a good effort after such a tough start.

“Tonight, we played much better defensively,” he added. “We were able to hold them down in the first quarter and the first half. That gave us a lot of confidence, and I think we started to feel like we really had a chance and started to get energized.”

Sophomore Taylor Valente’s energetic effort in the paint (14 points, 14 rebounds) in the second half gave the Patriots the finishing kick they’ve been lacking while playing six of their first eight on the road.

“He’s a real good athlete. He’s one of those kids that you can count on to make plays,” Flagg said.

Valente scored the first six points of the second half to send the lead into double digits, then worked a nice pick-and-roll with Cody Humphrey and scored on a putback to give the Patriots their biggest bulge of the night, 38-22.

The Raiders (2-8) briefly emerged from a two-game shooting slump to start the fourth quarter. Yusuke Fukata (nine points, six rebounds) drilled a pair of 3-pointers and Evan Humphrey (12 points) added a trey of his own to pull them within five midway through the fourth.

Jake Albert’s putback made it a four-point game, but the Raiders’ shooting woes returned. They made just one field goal in the final four minutes, and the Patriots scored seven of their final nine points from the foul line to snap their losing streak.

“The same (shooting problems) happened at Wells the other night and I though we’d gotten it out of our system,” Fryeburg coach Sedge Saunders said. “We didn’t have as many good looks as we had at Wells, but obviously we missed some shots you’d like to think that we’d make and, if we do, obviously there’s less pressure on our defense.”

The Patriots pressured the defense in the second quarter with a 14-3 run, sparked by back-to-back buckets from Evan Kenney, who matched his fellow sophomore Valente with a game-high 14 points. The run vaulted them from a 12-9 deficit to a 23-15 lead.