BATH – That old, prevailing wisdom about the NBA is beginning to fit the Lewiston High School boys’ basketball team: Watch the last two minutes, and you’ve seen it all.

The Blue Devils don’t look comfortable until they’re teetering on the brink of despair and garbage time. Ask Mt. Ararat, which watched a 13-point lead evaporate into a 2-point loss earlier this week.

And now ask Morse, afforded a 20-point lead with 3:16 remaining Friday night but blessed to escape with a 64-60 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference victory.

“We needed one more minute,” said Lewiston coach Tim Farrar. “Effort’s not the issue right now. We’ve got to put teams in that buzzsaw like we did at the end of the game, sooner.”

Lewiston (1-2) fell into a double-digit hole early in the third quarter and watched it deepen dramatically.

Michael Walton and Ryan Chaney weaved a seven-point Morse run to make it 60-40 late in the fourth. That’s when some schools’ student sections already would have broken out the obligatory “warm up the bus” chorus.

Instead, for the second time this week, desperation brought the Devils out of their shell and into a different dimension. Down by 15 points with 2:05 to play and 12 shy with 1:11 left, Lewiston scored the final eight to polish off a 20-4 run.

“When they pressed us, it bothered us. We hadn’t seen that really yet,” said Chaney, a 6-foot-5 senior center. “You’ve got to find the open man no matter where you are on the floor. We’ve just got to finish.”

Tenacious full-court pressure and a suffocating half-court trap paid the same dividends it produced Tuesday in the Devils’ gym. Lewiston forced a dozen Morse turnovers in the fourth quarter.

Ronnie Turner scored 13 of his 24 points in the final period for Lewiston to go along with four late steals. Sophomore Jeff Keene nailed two 3-pointers in the Devils’ finishing kick.

Alex Kee led all scorers with 25 for Morse (3-0). Lewiston limited Kee to eight of those points in the second half, two in the fourth quarter. Earlier, though, the Shipbuilders’ deceptive quickness gave the Devils trouble.

“We just were looking to get out and get running up-and-down on them,” said Chaney, who blocked six shots in the second half. “That’s our strength when we run and get inside, and Alex is a great scorer for us.”

Keene kept Lewiston within two points, 25-23, banking a runner off the glass with 52 seconds remaining in the first half.

Kee answered by draining a short jumper. He later rained down a 3-pointer at the buzzer for a 30-23 halftime edge.

“They hit a ‘2’ at the buzzer at the end of the first, a ‘3’ at the end of the half, and I think they hit another one near the end of the third,” Farrar said. “That’s what good teams do. They win the end of the quarter.”

Morse also owned the opening minutes of the third. Conventional 3-point plays by Chaney and Kee triggered an 8-2 surge out of the locker room.

Despite nine offensive rebounds in that stanza, Lewiston shot 5-of-21 from the field and trailed 46-34 with eight minutes remaining.

Nick Weekes added 11 points for Lewiston, which will face KVAC heavyweights Edward Little, Bangor and Lawrence before the holiday break.

“I don’t know if you’re going to be able to measure our success by wins and losses,” Farrar said. “We’re playing one of the toughest schedules. We have a new coach, new stuff. It’s going to be where we are at the end of the year. Two-thirds of the teams make it, so we have to take care of business and keep getting better.”