By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

HAMPDEN – Mt. Blue waited a little too long to throw Saturday’s KVAC opener with defending state champion Hampden Academy into organized chaos.

The Cougars nearly pulled themselves out of an early hole with a full-court trap and stifling denial defense on Hampden’s 6-foot-10 leader, Jordan Cook. But red-hot outside shooting by the Broncos, who never trailed, kept the Cougars at just enough of an arm’s length for the Broncos to pull off a 71-63 victory.

Sam Hodgdon led Hampden with a game-high 22 points as the Broncos shot a blistering 71 percent from the field, including 8-for-12 from 3-point land. Daniel McCue added 18 points and six assists, while Cook, who will play for the University of Maine next year, finished with 17 points, five rebounds and four blocked shots.

Steve Wells led the Cougars with 15 points, while Arthur Trask added 14 and five assists. John Moloney and Adam Gilbert chipped in with nine points apiece.

As expected, the Broncos pounded the ball inside to Cook from the opening tip. Mt. Blue, which doesn’t have a player taller than 6-1 on the roster, started out playing halfcourt man-to-man, but had to rethink that strategy after Cook drained 12 points in the first quarter to help stake Hampden to a 25-12 lead.

On their own offensive end, the Cougars were caught off guard by the Broncos’ 2-3 zone, with Cook in the middle, and made just four of their first 15 shots.

“He’s always played man-to-man, and I would have bet money that we would have seen man-to-man, but they came out in that zone,” Mt. Blue coach Jim Bessey said. “When you’re open in a zone, you’re going to get a shot. We just shot it a little quick, that’s all. But I think we got a little more patient and hit enough jump shots where we could be effective against it.”

Wells started finding space in the zone and ran off seven straight Cougar points midway through the second quarter. Mt. Blue’s pressure began to take its toll, too, helping to force seven turnovers in the period, and Bessey switched the Cougars to a zone that packed the middle against Cook. The Cougars cut the Hampden lead to single digits, 44-35 at halftime, despite the fact that the Broncos missed only three shots in the first half.

“We were able to turn them a little bit, get in transition, run the floor, and when we did that, we looked pretty good,” Bessey said.

“(The trap) got us out of our offensive flow. It was a good move on coach Bessey’s part. It changed the tempo of the game,” Hampden coach Russ Bartlett said. “They did a good job of taking Jordan away, too.”

Trask knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and Wells added a trey of his own to pull the Cougars to 48-46 with 2:20 left in the third, but Hampden responded with a three from J Uhrin (nine points) and back-to-back 3-pointers by Hodgdon to regain the momentum and a double-digit lead heading into the final quarter.

The Cougars still had a shot, though. They prevented Hampden from getting the ball inside to Cook by defending him front-and-back as the Broncos swung the ball around outside of the Cougars’ zone.

“We had several ways we were going to try to play him, and eventually we found one,” Bessey said. “We didn’t stop him, but I thought we got control of him from the second quarter on.”

Cook didn’t score a field goal from the start of the second quarter until he made a meaningless lay-up at the final buzzer.

Mt. Blue closed to within four three times in the fourth period but couldn’t get any closer. The Broncos got a big hoop from Evan Farley, his only points of the game, with just over a minute left, and then converted all four of their free throw attempts in the final minute to keep it a two-possession game.