LIVERMORE FALLS — One punch. One ejection. Two wrestling matches. Four technical fouls. Audible taunting. Red-faced, veins-in-the-temple-popping crowd exhortation straight out of the 1980s.

When it was over, Livermore Falls players, coaches and fans rushed the playing surface and celebrated as if they had won a state championship, just as they did after the football game with Jay three months ago.

This time the Andies walked off a 58-54 winner in front of more than 750 hoarse friends and neighbors.

Hard to say if the circus atmosphere was a reflection of the impending Jan. 25 vote over school consolidation or a last-ditch campaign against it.

“Very emotional,” Livermore Falls senior Mike Armstrong said. “This was our last rivalry game, and you could tell both teams wanted it.”

That part is far from certain. Even if the towns vote to merge their educational systems, the high schools could exist separately for at least one more year.

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Hey, it might take that long for everyone to cool off after this.

“I have more respect for this Jay team than any since I’ve been here,” Livermore Falls coach Travis Magnusson said. “I believe they respect us just as much. The kids actually like each other. But I’ve never seen as much dislike as I did out there tonight.”

There have been dozens of tighter Jay-Livermore Falls games over the years, including the Tigers’ win at home in the December season-opener.

In fact, the four-point margin at the finish matched Jay’s closest approach after the Andies accelerated to a 26-13 lead at the end of one quarter.

Livermore Falls (6-4) cooled in the second period and watched its lead shrink to 29-25 at the half.

Armstrong scored eight of his game-high 20 points in the third, triggering an 11-1 run that put the Andies in relative command.

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“Our football coach (Brad Bishop) came to practice and got us going,” said Armstrong, who also ripped down 14 rebounds and was involved in one of the brief skirmishes. “He had a couple of things to say to get us fired up. We told him we were going to get this one for him just like football.”

Livermore Falls nailed four consecutive 3-pointers — two by Mike Anctil and one each by Hunter Brett and Bryan Maurais — in a dizzying 8-for-10 start.

“I knew that was coming eventually, because we started shooting the ball well our last two games,” Magnusson said.

Six different Andies scored in the quarter, led by Armstrong’s eight.

The well ran dry just as quickly, however, with the Andies missing 15 of their next 19 tries.

“They came out on fire,” Jay coach Brian Kelly said. “I think probably one of those shots we didn’t get out on the guy. The rest of them they were hitting with somebody right in their face.”

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Led by Jake Bessey’s defense and distribution, Zach Bonnevie’s drives to the basket and five points off the bench by Trevin Dunlop, Jay got within four at the break.

Jay (5-5) made a similar surge at the finish, but it didn’t start soon enough.

Bonnevie scored 10 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, including five unanswered in the final 43 seconds before the Tigers ran out of time.

Bessey added 10 for Jay, all at the free-throw line.

The Tigers had trouble hitting from elsewhere all night long. Jay was 14-for-52 (27 percent) from the floor. That was punctuated by a 4-for-19 fourth quarter that saw the Tigers grab a dozen offensive rebounds but fail to significantly cut into the Andies’ lead.

“If we play with this kind of intensity for the rest of our games, (other opponents) could be in for a surprise,” Brian Kelly said.

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Jake Lord was ejected for Jay after a dust-up with Mike Castonguay in the third quarter.

Castonguay wasn’t penalized in that sequence, but he later picked up a technical for his reaction after fouling out on a Bonnevie 3-point attempt in the final minute.

Jay missed three of the resulting five free throws.

Armstrong also was T’d up after he and Jay’s Kyle Storer jawed at one another following a held ball that turned into a scrum. For his words as a third party, the Tigers’ Bill Calden was slapped with a technical, too.

The teams shook hands uneventfully and fans chatted peacefully afterward, having written just another contentious chapter in perhaps Maine’s best small-town sports rivalry,

“A lot of people picked them to win this game,” said Anctil, who hit four 3-pointers and scored 13 points for Livermore Falls. “We had something to prove.”

Livermore Falls’ Castonguay had nine points, nine rebounds and four steals. Jay’s Storer, battling the flu, chalked up six points and 13 rebounds in a rare reserve role.

koakes@sunjournal.com


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