AUGUSTA — The Mt. Blue boys basketball team withstood a tough challenge from Cony on Friday to claim a 68-62 victory in Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A North play.
Buoyed by back-to-back Chandler Briggs 3-pointers to begin the game, Mt. Blue (9-4) got off to a hot start as it ran out to a 10-0 lead. Seven different players scored in the opening period for the Cougars, who used the balanced scoring effort to take an 18-9 lead into the second quarter.
Cony, though, would answer by breaking through on offense. Riding six points and multiple steals from Eli Klaiber, the Rams (7-6) cut the deficit to 31-28 late in the half. Then, after a 3-pointer from Evans Sterling put the Cougars up 37-32, Alex Fournier rattled in a long triple at the buzzer to cut it back to two.
“Cony is a good team, and we knew they weren’t going to go away,” Mount Blue head coach Troy Norton. “They’re a good team playing at home, and they started making some shots in the second quarter. We expected that from them, and we knew we had to come back with an answer.”
Mt. Blue did so in the third quarter as it held Cony to six points in the period to take a lead 47-41 into the final eight minutes. Yet the Rams would fire back again early in the fourth as Fournier exploded for eight points in the first three minutes of the frame to tie the game at 49.
Mt. Blue rebounded to go up 61-54 before six straight points from Parker Sergent cut the Cougars’ lead to one. The visitors, though, would answer with a clutch 3-pointer from Briggs and a steal and layup from Sterling to make it 66-60 before holding the Rams without a basket the rest of the way.
Briggs led Mt. Blue in scoring with 19 points, while Sterling (18 points, five rebounds) and Zak Koban (13 points, seven rebounds) also finished in double figures for the Cougars. Jayden Meader had eight points for Mt. Blue, and Zach Poisson added six points and four rebounds.
Fournier finished with a game-high 22 points for Cony, and Sergent added 16, including 10 in the fourth quarter. The Rams also got eight points and seven rebounds from Kam Douin and six points, three rebounds and two steals from Klaiber.
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