Boys basketball: Oxford Hills outlasts Lewiston in early AA North showdown

PARIS — The Oxford Hills boys basketball team battled through foul trouble, cold shooting and a stingy Lewiston zone defense to earn a 56-44 Class AA North victory on Tuesday.

“I think we just, we don’t let it get to us. We just play through it,” Vikings senior guard Cole Pulkkinen said. “Mentally tough.”

Head coach Scott Graffam said the Oxford Hills players were unfazed by what could have been a frustrating game.

“Their mental toughness is off the charts,” he said. “They don’t think they can lose, even when they’re playing teams that are better than them. There’s some better basketball players on that Lewiston team than our team, but they’re not mentally tougher than we are — or physically, even.”

The Vikings (2-0) built a 29-19 lead at halftime but then were held to four third-quarter points as the Blue Devils (1-1) trimmed the deficit to 33-29 heading into the fourth.

Part of the reason for Oxford Hills’ struggles was the foul trouble of Pulkkinen and Teigan Pelletier. Both players were called for three fouls by the midway point of the second quarter. Pelletier and Pulkkinen — who led the Vikings in their season-opening win over Edward Little with 20 and 13 points, respectively — and the entire team also struggled to make shots in the first three quarters.

In the fourth, Pelletier’s and Pulkkinen’s shots started to fall. Pulkkinen scored 12 of his game-high 18 points in the final period, and Pelletier scored five of his 11. And the Vikings pulled away.

“We got going a little bit. We got some good looks. They went (to a man-to-man defense) and we were able to throw the ball long a couple times, we got some breakouts. And we made some foul shots,” Graffam said.

“I think we came with more energy, and we all just connected better on defense,” Pulkkinen said. “We got a lot of transition buckets.”

Oxford Hills also took advantage of the foul trouble of Lewiston’s Yusuf Dakane, who, along with Pelletier, is regarded as one of the top players in the state. In his absence, the Vikings used a full-court press for a few possessions and it generated offense that helped rebuild their lead and outscore the Blue Devils 23-15 over the final eight minutes.

“We wanted to slow them down a little bit, because they want to run, they’re really fast,” Graffam said. “So that’s why we went 2-2-1, to try to slow them down. Of course, with Yusuf out, that’s what we want to do, anyway, because he’s so good with the basketball, so we wanted to give them a little pressure.”

Dakane finished with 13 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Jibril Holloman led Lewiston with 16 points, with 10 of those coming in the second half.

The many fouls that were called led to numerous trips to the foul line for both teams. The Vikings made 18 of their 24 free throws. Holden Shaw, Oxford Hills’ 6-foot-5 center, was 7 of 8 at the line. He finished with 13 points.

“Especially a team like that, which is mostly guards, that’s when Holden steps up and gets a lot of buckets for us,” Pulkkinen said.

Free throws accounted for 12 of Oxford Hills’ 29 first-half points. Pelletier was limited to six points and Pulkkinen to three over the first two quarters.

Many shots didn’t drop, but Graffam also gave credit to Lewiston’s 1-3-1 zone, which he said is hard to adequately prepare for because so few teams use it.

Blue Devils coach Elgin Physic said he was happy to hold the Vikings to 56 points and Pelletier to 11. He said that whether Lewiston was playing zone or man-to-man defense, its game plan was to always keep track of where Pelletier was on the court.

Eight first-half points by Shaw and five from Lincoln Merrill helped the Vikings take a 10-point advantage into halftime.

Lewiston, which opened the season with a 56-47 win over Portland, scored the first seven points after halftime to get within three points, 29-26, and held Oxford Hills scoreless until past the midway point of the third when Pulkkinen hit a 3-pointer to make it 32-26. Neither team hit another field goal in the period — Holloman hit three free throws for the Blue Devils, and Shaw made one for Oxford Hills.

The Blue Devils also shot well from the foul line, making 12 of 17, but Physic said they didn’t shoot well enough from the field to beat last year’s AA North champion.

“I thought in the third quarter we came out with some energy, but sometimes it’s a little too little, too late,” Physic said. “And, again, we came out with energy, but then again, we’ve got to make some shots, too.”