BUCKFIELD – The similarities between Rangeley and Buckfield were apparent throughout Tuesday night’s East-West Conference clash. Two one-win teams battled through seven ties and 11 lead changes through the first three-and-a-half quarters of the game.

Then the biggest difference between the two teams became apparent. The Bucks may have horns, but they aren’t green like the Lakers.

Buckfield had three seniors, Tyler Weymouth, Kyle Rines and Bryan Litchfield, reach double figures in scoring and factor prominently in the final two minutes, in which the Bucks pulled away for a 46-39 win.

Weymouth led the Bucks inside with 14 points, 14 rebounds, five steals and three blocks. Rines provided the balance outside with 14 points, including three 3-pointers, plus six rebounds and four steals. Litchfield filled in the gaps, chipping in with 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks.

“It was an ugly win, but we’ll take it,” said Buckfield coach Doug Rines, whose team’s first win was the one over Valley, Buckfield’s first over that team in recent memory. “Tyler really got after it on the boards. Kyle Rines had a lot of good shots outside. Bryan Litchfield hit a key shot at the end. Those are the guys that we really depend on.”

Rangeley, by contrast, has just two seniors on its roster, and the Lakers (1-7) struggled with different defensive looks from Buckfield (2-5), particularly the full court pressure and halfcourt zone the Bucks played late.

“I had four freshmen and three sophomores and two seniors play in that game,” Rangeley coach Tom Philbrick said. “Buckfield has pretty good athleticism and they moved the ball. We had to know where Rines was the whole time because he drained a few that hurt us. I think we brought a lot of our problems on ourselves with our inexperience. We didn’t come to the ball well against the pressure and some of our passes didn’t have the velocity you have to have.”

The Bucks outscored the Rangers 9-1 in the final 2:21 of the game. After Luke Elliot’s jumper for Rangeley tied the game for the last time, Zeke Hall gave the Lakers their last lead by making one of two from the charity stripe for a 38-37 edge. Weymouth responded with a bucket inside to put the Bucks back in front for good with 2:12 remaining.

Buckfield poured it on from there, getting a jumper in the lane by Litchfield, then a putback by Litchfield on a Rines steal and missed layup to put the game away.

“We were very clutch at the end,” Kyle Rines said. “It was a very close game. It’s always tough against Rangeley. It all comes down to execution and we had that.”

The Bucks never led by more than five and never trailed by more than one up to their late outburst.

“We didn’t hit a lot of our open shots,” Rines said. “Our kids forced a lot of shots but I think our kids went after it hard.”

The Bucks may have missed their fair share of open looks, shooting 36 percent from the field, but they were on fire compared to the Lakers, who shot just 21 percent.

Weymouth got off to a fast start in the paint, scoring eight points in the first quarter, but the Lakers matched him with Quinn Philbrick (14 points, 10 rebounds, three steals) from the outside and Hall (12 points, 12 rebounds) getting them second chances on the offensive boards.

“Quinn’s a really, really tough guard,” Doug Rines said. “We tried to play man-to-man but he showed us he could hit the open shot, so we had to change things up, we I thought we did really well. We went to a 1-3-1 and that seemed to help, but the big kid, Zeke Hall, was really tough.”

Chad Allen gave the Bucks their biggest lead of the first 30 minutes with a steal and layup that made it 32-27 late in the third quarter. Sparked by a Philbrick 3-pointer, Rangeley battled back early in the fourth and eventually tied it again on an Elliot trey.