BRUNSWICK — The Brunswick and Oxford Hills girls basketball teams met Monday night in a much-anticipated Class AA/A crossover showdown.

And the game didn’t dissapoint.

Oxford Hills took advantage of some hot second-half shooting, then held off a fierce Brunswick to pull out a 48-44 victory in a battle between two of the top girls hoops teams in the state.

Oxford Hills (16-1) hit 10 3-pointers — seven in the second half — to secure the victory. The Vikings sit atop Class AA North. Brunswick fell to 15-2 but entered Tuesday’s games still atop Class A South with one game remaining — Thursday against rival Mt. Ararat.

“They hit their three’s when they needed to,” said Brunswick coach Sam Farrell. “They’re really good, that was a great game to have as both teams used this to get better.”

Oxford Hills senior Sierra Carson led all scorers with 15 points while teammate Molly Corbett added 14. Each hit three key second-half 3-pointers. Ella Pelletier added eight points. Maddy Werner and Dakota Shipley each netted 10 points for the Dragons. Emily Doring added eight and Kelsie Carlton scored seven.

The teams were a little sloppy early, making unforced turnovers, missing layups and outside shots.

“The first half we were a little jacked up, everything was long and that’s not normal,” said former Brunswick graduate and Oxford Hills head coach Nate Pelletier. “A lot of credit to Brunswick and their pressure.”

The teams were tied at 10 at the end of the first quarter.

The Vikings began to find their shooting stroke in the second quarter, outscoring the Dragons 9-5 with all nine points coming from behind the arc.

“Early on we missed layups where we could have gone into halftime with the lead. We had decent looks, those weren’t 50-50 balls,” said Farrell.

The Vikings continued to shoot well to open the second half, going on a 7-0 run to build a 26-15 lead.  A pair of 3-pointers from Carson helped Oxford Hills take a 32-24 lead into the final quarter.

Corbett hit her third and fourth 3-pointers early in the fourth as Oxford Hills appeared poised to grab an easy victory.

But then the Dragons roared back with a 10-0 run to pull within one. Shipley hit two 3-pointers to help spark the rally.

However, the Vikings held, as Pelletier and Carson each hit a pair of free throws down the stretch to seal the four-point victory.

“I’ve been telling everybody this all year, our girls shoot really well,” Nate Pelletier said. “For us, it was just getting attempts up. We knew they were going to start falling, and when they do, the one thing about this team, it becomes contagious and they just start dropping from everywhere. Give credit to Brunswick for really staying in there and making that run and cutting it to one. We had to battle, that’s playoff basketball right there. That’s a great basketball team and I think they’re going to make a deep run in the playoffs.”

Brunswick will look to use this game as a leaning tool heading into the postseason.

“We came out here and knew we wanted to compete. They’re a really good team, we got down and knew we could come back and we did just that,” said Carlton, who collided with an Oxford Hills player and hit the floor in the second quarter, losing parts of two teeth. “This is a much better practice for the playoffs coming up than a game we win by 50. It shows us what exactly we need to work on. They hit shots so we need to get on shooters. It helps us learn how to guard a really good shooting team.”

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