DIXFIELD – You can pray that Thomas Knight and his 6-foot-8 frame and 5-foot-11 outside shooting touch get into foul trouble. You may try like the devil to get in Colby Knapp’s grill and deny him the ball.

Neither of those bad omens befell Dirigo High School on Saturday evening, to begin with. And if Wes Gagnon compounds the one-two punch by unleashing one 3-point haymaker after another, you might as well grab the bag of basketballs and the medicine kit and hit the bus.

Gagnon rained down four treys, including one each in third and fourth quarters to stymie a pair of Boothbay runs and direct the Cougars to a 58-49 victory in a Mountain Valley Conference boys’ hoop showdown at DeFoe Gymnasium.

“I think that it really boosted the team and gave us a little more oomph for the win,” Gagnon said.

Dirigo (16-1) reaped another hefty Heal Point windfall in its pursuit of a top-two seed and a first-round bye in the Western Class C playoffs. The Cougars have swept the other faces on the MVC’s mythical Mount Rushmore -Winthrop, Mountain Valley and now Boothbay – in the last nine days.

Even without his exquisite timing, Gagnon’s 16 points and four assists would have been a welcome boost.

Combine his status as the official momentum-killer with the usual exploits from Knight (19 points, 11 rebounds, eight blocked shots, four assists, four steals) and Knapp (16 points, 11 rebounds, six assists), and Gagnon guaranteed Boothbay (14-2) a painfully long commute back to the mid-coast.

“When we scouted them, the Gagnon kid couldn’t make a ‘3.’ Tonight he dropped two or three of them at crucial times to give them more space,” said Boothbay coach I.J. Pinkham.

Gagnon’s third-quarter rainbow followed a Knapp free throw that snapped a run of eight unanswered Boothbay points.

Later, one possession after Kris Noonan’s reverse lay-up scratched the Seahawks within single digits, Gagnon collected a bounce pass from Knapp and nailed another open trifecta to make it 52-40 with 3:36 left.

“He was knocking ’em down. I was impressed,” said Knight.

Knight, Knapp, Gagnon and Adam Law all got into the act during a first-quarter surge that demonstrated Dirigo’s deft touch from all distances. The Cougars started 7-of-8 and ripped open a 20-11 advantage.

Noonan (16 points and 10 rebounds) swished two free throws and dropped in a fourth-opportunity put-back to fuel Boothbay’s first rally, bringing the Seahawks within five at 22-17 with 4:56 remaining in the half. But with Knight swatting and otherwise disrupting shots at one end of the floor, Dirigo ignited again at the other.

Tyler Chiasson’s 3-pointer off the bench preceded an inside deuce by Gagnon and Knight’s short jumper in the paint, restoring the cushion. Knapp chipped in a lay-up for a 33-19 disparity at the half.

“We wanted to come out firing and prove to them that we really were a good team and that they couldn’t play with us,” said Knight, whose team lost to Boothbay in the regional final last February. “We really wanted to get some redemption for that one. It didn’t end well last year.”

Joe Farrin finished with 12 points for Boothbay, which sputtered to 19-of-56 (34 percent) from the field.

“We didn’t finish well inside,” Pinkham said. “And we let them get out in transition. You can only let a team like that get out in transition two or three times. That’s six or eight points in a close game.”