RUMFORD — The Oak Hill boys’ basketball team gave another indication that things are turning in the right direction for the program on Monday night.

The Raiders’ competitive nature shone through their shooting and defensive effort were front and center.

Senior guard Dalton Therrien scored a game-high 28 points while directing the offense as Oak Hill raised the tempo in a solid 74-61 win over Mountain Valley at Puiia Gymnasium.

Mountain Valley (0-4) was led by freshman Cam Godbois, who came off the bench to score a team-high 18 points, and senior guard Riley Flynn, who added 13 points, including four 3-pointers. The Falcons needed to get on track after having played Wiscasset, Dirigo and Winthrop to open the season.

Oak Hill (2-3) was on fire, opening the second half with a 12-4 run to open up a 48-38 lead. Therrien scored eight points during the onslaught, including the first two Raiders baskets. Darryn Bailey buried a trey and Therrien and Connor Elwell (18 points) added baskets.

“We really didn’t make any adjustments,” Oak Hill coach Tim Smith said. “It was just a strong 1-3-1 trap on defense and Therrien running the show on offense.”

Godbois buried back-to-back treys to trail 52-44, with three minutes left in the third quarter. The Falcons drained nine shots from beyond the arc. The teams proceeded to get into a scramble and traded baskets from Godbois and Elwell, as Oak Hill led 58-50 after three quarters.

“When we score 61 points we should win the game. I have no issues with our offense,” said Mountain Valley coach Tom Danylik, who believes the Falcons need to become tougher both mentally and physically if they want to make progress on the defensive end.

“There was no defense. We need to go back to the basic fundamentals on defense, such as boxing out and we certainly are not getting after the loose balls.”

Oak Hill utilized its twin towers — Marcus (seven rebounds) and Darryn Bailey — to clog up the middle. In one instance, Darryn (eight rebounds, two blocks) blocked a shot, gained possession and passed ahead to a streaking Therrien for an uncontested layup.

“A big difference tonight was that we made our shots,” Smith said. “But, we still need to work on our rebounding.”

In the fourth quarter, Mountain Valley cut the deficit to 62-55 on an Alex Ridley basket. A trey by Curtis Steele made it 67-61, with 3:14 to play. The Falcons shot themselves in the foot with poor shooting 32 percent in the game, including 4 of 21 in the fourth quarter.

”There are turnovers in the flow of the game and then there is crucial  turnovers,” Danylik said. “We had the ball with a chance to pull within five points on two possessions. But, mistakes hurt us.”

Danylik said the team has had some decent looks inside, but is not finishing them with any sort of consistency.

Mountain Valley had jumped out on fire with three Flynn treys to take a 19-18 lead after the first quarter.

Oak Hill came back to lead 36-34 at halftime. The game was tied or changed sides 15 times in the first half.

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