Oxford Hills boys roll past Hampden in high-scoring matchup

PARIS — Four Oxford Hills starters scored in double figures in a 91-68 boys basketball victory over Hampden on Thursday.

Teigan Pelletier led the Vikings (4-1) with 25 points, while Colby Dillingham added 20, Cole Pulkkinen scored 17 and Eli Soehren finished with 16. The 91 points are among the most scored by an Oxford Hills team during head coach Scott Graffam’s 40-year tenure.

“That’s a real positive,” Graffam said. “That’s up there, I’ve done the history of the school in basketball, and that’s in the top-15 scores.”

Both teams opened the game shooting well in the first quarter, highlighted by Hampden’s Andrew Day’s three 3-pointers in a row that helped the Broncos score 18 first-quarter points.

Oxford Hills, meanwhile, put up 25 in the opening period, led by junior guard Pulkkinen, who scored seven points, dished two assists, grabbed two boards and notched a steal.

Pulkkinen did it all for the Vikings on Tuesday.

“Cole’s a hard-working basketball player,” Graffam said. “Offensively he does a great job for us. He has put countless hours into basketball, has probably taken 15,000 shots since last season, and he will come in on his own and put up shots. He’s a hard worker and good basketball player.”

Dillingham scored six in the first quarter and then scored the Vikings’ first six points in the second quarter, in just 90 seconds.

“They had great passes, they laid them right in my hands and I just put them in easily,” Dillingham said. “We were working really well as a team offensively and just getting our shots.”

With so much of Hampden’s attention focused on Oxford Hills’ 6-foot-10 center, Dillingham, the Vikings’ offense was able to get open shots and score 48 in the first half.

“We hit the 3 a little bit, and obviously when you’ve got a 6-10 kid and you can get it down inside, he can score,” Graffam said. “We were OK, we weren’t very patient, but we shot well and got some fast breaks. We don’t normally get a lot of transition points, but tonight we got a bunch. When you shoot well, you shoot well.”

Day drained two more 3-pointers in the second quarter and finished the game with 19 points. The Broncos (0-5) as a team cooled down in the second period, however, and fell behind 48-32 by halftime.

Hampden’s Zach McLaughlin scored nine in the first half, and after spending some time on the bench early in the third he came back in and scored nine of his team-high 20 points in the period. Landen Gabric also scored four of his 14 points in the third quarter for the Broncos.

“Positively, it was how we were able to score, but negatively, it was how many wide-open shots we gave up,” Graffam said. “I am a defensive guy and so I didn’t like the shots we gave up.

“It’s hard for me to win a game 91-68. I should be ecstatic.”

Still, the Vikings didn’t slow down on offense. Eli Soehren drilled a couple of 3-pointers and helped Oxford Hills to a 67-53 lead after three quarters.

Hampden pulled within 12 points early in the fourth, but Pelletier scored 11 of his 25 in the final period to help the Vikings put the game away.

The Vikings have won four in a row since losing to Edward Little by two points in the season opener. Dillingham credits the defense.

“We’ve played really good defense,” Dillingham said. “Even though some of the numbers haven’t showed it, we’ve played better defense than we have in the past couple years. Offensively we are one of the best teams in the past couple years.”