PARIS — After controlling Saturday’s KVAC matinee with Messalonskee for the first three-and-a-half quarters, Oxford Hills had to go into survival mode for the final four minutes.

The Vikings’ desperation, fatigue and futility in the waning moments was on full display during one sequence where, leading by four with about a minute left, they had to call time out twice just to get the ball to halfcourt against the Eagles’ suddenly revitalized press. They ended up losing the ball anyway because of an offensive foul on the out of bounds play following the second time out.

Luck helped turn the momentum back Oxford Hills’ way when Messalonskee’s Carl Smith missed an open jumper. The rebounding action resulted in a jump ball and the alternating possession arrow awarded the ball to the Vikings with 31 seconds left.

The Vikings regained their composure just in time. Faced with fullcourt pressure again, Deric Hanscom took the inbounds pass, calmly took a couple dribbles over midcourt and found Ken Lynch open for the clinching bucket with 21 seconds remaining in a 52-48 victory.

“It’s frustrating to watch, because you should put teams away. But if you can’t make foul shots and layups at the end of a game, it makes for an interesting game,” Oxford Hills coach Scott Graffam said. “We’ll take the win and I’m very  proud of the way our kids played. We rebounded well and we did defend for three-and-a-half quarters.”

Hanscom led all scorers with 11 points and seven rebounds off the bench. Josh MacDonald chipped in with 10 points 12 rebounds and four steals for the Vikings. Riley Wentworth came off the bench to lead the Eagles (1-10) with nine points, all in the fourth quarter.

Oxford Hills (4-8) led by 14 early in the fourth quarter when Wentworth entered the game for the first time and drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 42-34 Vikings.

Josh MacDonald and Mike MacDonald each scored to send the lead back into double digits on two separate occasions, but 3-pointers by Wentworth and Dayshawn Roberts and two Ryan Erskine free throws pulled the Eagles to within six with 2:41 remaining.

“(Wentworth) gave us a spark,” Messalonskee coach Peter McLaughlin said. “He’s been a shooter all year. We were trying to give him some looks and he hit them.”

“I’ve got no problem with our defensive effort, it’s just sometimes…” Graffam said. “I can understand giving up a three. You’re going to give up threes once in awhile, but not to the same kid three times in a row.”

The Vikings were in the bonus by the middle of the fourth quarter but couldn’t take advantage from the line despite shooting a respectable 11-for-16 up to that point. Once they got into the double bonus, Ken Lynch made one of two for a 49-42 lead. Smith and Jake Fenlason combined to make three of four to pull Messalonskee within four with 1:38 remaining.

That was as close as the Eagles would get, though. They had a chance to make it a one possession game after they forced a backcourt violation with their defensive pressure, but Smith was called for an offensive foul on the ensuing possession.

Both teams had played, and lost, roughly 20 hours earlier. Oxford Hills, which dropped a five-point decision to Lewiston Friday night, appeared to be the fresher squad at the start, shooting 6-for-11 from the field in the first quarter, then using solid 3/4-court defense to limit the Eagles to 2-for-13 shooting in the second quarter while building a 10-point lead for halftime.

“We were ready to go at the beginning and then fatigue started to set in,” Ken Lynch said. “At the beginning, we weren’t giving up open shots. Towards the end of the game, we started getting slower and giving up open shots more.”

“I think (fatigue) was an issue,” Graffam said. “We played everybody, 14 kids today. We expended a lot of energy (Friday) night. You could see some of the kids who played a lot last night really didn’t have much today in the second half, so they had to sit a lot. But we had enough kids against Messalonskee to win.”