AUGUSTA — Nate Pelletier wasn’t sure exactly when panic might become poise for his Oxford Hills girls’ basketball squad, but he’s seen signs of it the last two outings.

The Vikings survived a late Cony rally and held off the Rams on Friday for a 36-32 win.

It was the second consecutive win for Oxford Hills (3-3). The Vikings edged Bangor on Monday, 49-44.

“It’s coming along,” Pelletier said. “It’s really coming along. The same sort of thing happened against Bangor. It was a very close game. We hit some free throws down the stretch there. We hit some free throws down the stretch here. That’s what you want in a team. If you can hit the free throws down the stretch you can win a lot of games.”

The Vikings watched Cony tie the game late in the fourth, but Oxford Hills pulled away in the final minutes with seven free throws.

“We didn’t play well and we lost,” Cony coach Ted Rioux said. “We had a lot of fundamental errors that cost us.”

The Vikings got 10 points from Crystal West, including eight free throws late in the fourth quarter. Anna Winslow added nine points, including four points and two from the line in the fourth.

Cony (5-3) got 10 from Haley Quirion and nine each from Abbey Wormell and Emily Quirion.

The game featured a rarity. Both teams were shut out in a quarter — though not in the same frame. The Vikings went 0-for-3 in the second with 12 turnovers and were outscored 11-0. In the third, Cony shot 0-for-11 with four turnovers. The Rams were outscored 11-0 as the Vikings retook the lead.

“It was just frustrating,” Rioux said. “You can’t win a Class A basketball game not scoring in a quarter. It’s just impossible.”

Down 21-18 after three, the Rams watched the Vikings open up a seven-point lead in the fourth. A basket by Tianna Sugars on a feed from Winslow was followed by a  fast break hoop from Kersey Goyette. That made it 25-18.

Cony went nearly 14 minutes without a score but ended that drought with an Emily Quirion basket with 5:59 left. The Rams then went on a 6-0 run to tie the game 26-26 with 2:56 left. Cony got free throws by Wormell. Then Bayleigh Logan scored on a rebound and Wormell scored in the post for the equalizer.

The Vikings looked a little flustered on its next possession as Cony seized the momentum. Oxford Hills tried to run some offense, but Cony’s defense put some good pressure on. West then drew a foul and hit both shots for the lead with 2:31 left.

“We weren’t looking to stall,” Pelletier said. “We told them we were going to pass and move. We wanted to make them come out and guard us and maybe we could get a layup. They happen to foul Crystal and she hit some huge free throws for us.”

A significant swing followed. Cony turned the ball over on its next possession, but just as the Rams were to  intercept a Viking pass, Rioux was given a technical. West hit two more free throws to make it 30-26 with 2:08 left. The Vikings had the ball and that led to a Winslow free throw and five-point lead.

“Those are times when teams that win basketball games execute” Rioux said. “We got the stop. We had the chance to go down and tie the basketball game up and we turned it over. Late in game turnovers kill.”

Cony got a 3 from Emily Quirion with 1:41 left, but West hit two more free throws. Then Mikayla Morin fed Winslow for a basket for a 35-29 lead. Morin added a free throw before Cony got a 3 from Wormell in the final seconds.

“We finally got our pressure up a little bit,” Rioux said of the fourth quarter surge. “We got down to doing what we did in the first half – be patient against the zone and get shots against the zone. For some reason, they started dribbling against the zone, and that didn’t work.”

The Vikings were up 10-7 after the first but had a disastrous second and went over 12 minutes without scoring. Cony built an 18-10 lead at the half.

“The second quarter we took three shots,” said Pelletier, whose team only had one shot through the first six-plus minutes of the quarter. “When you only take three shots in the second quarter, you’re not going to score. One of our goals going into the third was to get 15 shots. We did – not a lot of them went in but we got some.”

Brooke Murch led the charge in the third with four points while Winslow added three. The Vikings erased the deficit and took a 21-18 lead after three.

kmills@sunjournal.com

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