After suffering a heartbreaking 53-50 loss on Tuesday to Seacoast Christian, the Hyde School boys basketball team wanted nothing more than to return to its style of play and come out with a big turnaround win.

Facing rival Valley, the Phoenix ran the floor, coming out on top with a 47-30 upset win on Thursday at Hyde to improve their record to 5-1 and move to No. 4 in the Western Maine Class D Heal Point Standings.

“The focus this year has been defensive rebounding,” Hyde coach Corey Begly said after the game, “Every practice we work on that and really pride ourselves on team defense, teaching man-to-man fully. We were pretty happy with that and the intensity on the defensive end in particular.”

“Tonight I think we were really a cohesive team,” junior Kiefer Cundy said. “Rebounding, talking on defense, watching the shifts of their offense, I think we really worked together. We had our eyes up, hands up at all times, and I think that really helped us be successful at our defense today and successful on our offense too.”

The Cavaliers, who are 6-3 and ranked second in the Heals, came in statistically as the favorite to win the match and it appeared to head in that direction when Dillon Beane knocked quick jump shot down to give Valley the opening 2-0 lead.

However, the Phoenix answered and went off, going on a 14-0 run to round out the remainder of the quarter, forcing a 1-for-8 performance from the Cavaliers while shooting just under 50 percent on their own side at 6-for-13.

The remaining three quarters saw a different style of play. Valley returned to its tough defense and competitive offensive style, but the Phoenix kept pace, finishing out the first half with a 29-16 advantage, thanks to seven points from both Noah Horning and Andrew Palermo, with Antoine Montgomery dropping six points.

Second half tension

The Phoenix had the Cavaliers right where they wanted them and they only had one more half to hold on. A heavy defensive third quarter produced only an 8-6 performance in the frame, but after the Phoenix limited Valley to just four points over two minutes, the intensity began to rise as one Cavalier was handed a technical foul.

That same frustration carried over into the final quarter, where Valley players were issued two technical fouls less than 20 seconds apart, sending Hyde to the line with Cundy taking the honors and sinking all four shots.

“We talk in practice and work on late-game situations, and we know that it’s a rivalry,” Begly stated on how his team stays composed during high moments of tension. “They’re extremely well coached and they play hard and there’s going to be hard fouls at the end of the game. Just working through adversity and staying together instead of one guy going off, we try to get the guys to huddle up after a hard foul to keep them calm.”

Cundy sank all six of his free-throw attempts, with Palermo making 1-of-2 to allow Hyde to pull away late. The only other points scored in the quarter was a 3-pointer dished up by Horning with 5:27 remaining.

Though Thursday’s victory might have been considered a big win for the Phoenix, both Begly and Cundy realize work still needs to be done with a tough second-half stretch ahead.

“I hope to see that instead of being at a six-man (team), that we’ll get more into depth of an eight-man, 10- man team, to get everyone on the floor and on the same page,” Cundy said. “I think that would be really helpful and get everyone some time and points.”

“It’s a good bounce-back game,” Begly said. “We struggled in our last game, we kind of went away from our style, but I think the biggest thing is, you know we always tell the guys ‘when you work hard, good things come from that.’ That’s been our philosophy, really focusing on toughness and team-toughness and what that really means and that showed tonight. Hopefully we can get on another roll.”

Valley’s Cody Laweryson led all scorers with 12 points, with teammate Collin Miller and Hyde’s Cundy following with 11 points each. The Phoenix totaled 26 rebounds on the night, with the Cavaliers collecting 19.

Hyde looks to carry its momentum from Thursday into Saturday when it hosts Highview Christian Academy at 3:30 p.m.

Hyde 47, Valley 30

At Hyde School in Bath

Valley — Collin Miller 4-3-11, Austin Cates 0-0-0, Cody Lawyerson 5-1-12, Dillon Beane 1-0-2, Luke Malloy 0-1- 1, Brandon Thomas 1-2-4, Nathan Ames 0-0-0, Josh Brown 0-0-0, Raymond Bigelow 0-0-0, Gabe Pullen 0- 0-0, Totals — 11-7-30. Hyde — Noah Horning 4-0-10, Frederick Lasson 0-0-0, Kiefer Cundy 1-9- 11, Greg Kidger 3-0-6, Antoine Montgomery 4-0-8, Andrew Palermo 4-2- 10, Nolan Lowder 0-0-0, Byran Wang 0-0-0, David Wu 0-0-0, Lawson Lin 0-0-0, Totals — 17-11-47. 3-point goals — (V) Lawyerson; (H) Horning 2. Records — Hyde 5-1; Valley 6-3. Up next for the Phoenix — Saturday at home against Highview Christian Academy, 3:30 p.m.