MONMOUTH — Tyler Chiasson stood on the edge of the jump circle at midcourt and dribbled. And dribbled. And dribbled some more.

Under orders from Dirigo coach Dave Gerrish, Chiasson pounded the ball into the Monmouth Academy hardwood for about 2 ½ minutes of the third quarter before the Mustangs’ Robbie Neal challenged him and, eventually, drew an offensive foul, bringing a rousing cheer from the Monmouth partisans.

Dirigo’s stall tactics weren’t popular, but they were effective, as was its suffocating halfcourt defense. The Cougars scored just one field goal in the second half, yet still pulled away from the Mustangs, 40-25.

“I was waiting. I was ready if (Neal) started coming at me, and he did eventually,” Chiasson said. “I thought it was fun. I like dribbling.”

“I almost did a slip-and-slide,” he joked.

Chiasson finished with a game-high 15 points, eight rebounds and three assists, while Eric Bolduc added 11 for Dirigo (11-1). Tim Whitmore led Monmouth (7-5) with eight points, with Roger Bachelder and Elliott Kahl chipping in five points apiece.

The Cougars led, 25-16, but after Nic Crutchfield became the third Cougar to pick up his third foul -about three minutes into the third quarter, Gerrish called a timeout and told Chiasson to hold the ball.

“We got into foul trouble in the second half. We needed to hold the ball a little bit,” Gerrish said. “We don’t like playing that way, but we did. It’s a risk, but in that case, it’s risk versus reward.”

“Our coach wants us to work hard on defense, get up the floor, get in people’s faces, and just the refs weren’t having that today,” Crutchfield said. “So we had to kind of shut our game down and back off, take a step back and take a deep breath.” 

Chiasson scored Dirigo’s only point of the quarter on a free throw with three seconds left, as the Cougars missed all seven of their shots in the period. But the Mustangs were only able to take one point off of an 11-point halftime deficit because they only took three shots and made one, a Whitmore layup.

“Our goal was to be in the game heading into the fourth quarter and then make a run,” Monmouth coach Lucas Turner said. “So I was willing, if (Dirigo) was willing, to sit the rest of the third quarter.”

Monmouth did indeed make a run in the fourth quarter to pull within five. Bachelder put back his own miss, then Corey Dyke scored inside to make it 26-20. The two teams exchanged free throws before Whitmore’s layup made it 28-23 with 3:50 remaining. The Mustangs didn’t score again for the next 3:44, though.

“At the end of the game, we needed stops and the kids got them and boxed out well,” Gerrish said. 

Chiasson broke a 14-minute Dirigo drought from the floor when he recovered after Dyke blocked his shot, scored the hoop and drew a foul. The three-point play started a 12-0 Dirigo run to close the game. The Cougars shot 1-for-14 from the field and 12-for-22 from the free throw line in the second half. The Mustangs shot 5-for-18 from the field and 1-for-2 from the charity stripe.

Dirigo did an excellent job of shutting down the passing lanes in the first half, overplaying the entry pass and taking Monmouth out of its offense. That limited the Mustangs to just four field goals. They went more than five minutes without a point during one first quarter stretch as the Cougars opened a 10-2 lead. Baskets by Ryan Baillargeon and Whitmore got Monmouth back in the game, but then a Tyler Gates 3-pointer gave the Cougars a a 20-9 lead midway through the second quarter, and they maintained that margin until halftime.

“They were definitely very physical with their defense, more physical and probably stronger than us,” Turner said. “We had a hard time cutting and screening and getting open. If we don’t get that first pass in our offense, our offense doesn’t work. It slows things up and we have a hard time scoring.”