READFIELD — Ben Osborne made the first significant varsity minutes of his career count.
The Mount View sophomore came off the bench in the second half, scored eight of his nine points in the final period, and led the Mustangs to a 48-45 win over Maranacook in a Class B boys basketball game Tuesday night. The win was the fourth straight for Mount View (9-5), which was led by a 12-point, 10-rebound effort from senior Declan Knowlton.
Osborne helped spark Mount View’s 14-0 fourth-quarter run that erased a five-point deficit and handed the Mustangs their first lead since early in the second quarter.
“I was just ready to go play,” Osborne said. “Usually when I get on the floor my main focus is defense, but the opportunity came about and I scored when the team needed me to.”
Fellow sophomore Noah Hurd scored all eight of his points in the final period, including a pair of 3-pointers midway through. His second with 3:18 to play answered a Brayden St. Pierre trey at the other end of the floor only seconds earlier for the Black Bears. It also handed Mount View its largest lead of the night at 46-37.
Hurd’s hot shooting was significant, but no more significant than his efforts as the Mustangs turned to a full-court press that forced Maranacook (7-6) into seven turnovers in a span of three minutes early in the fourth.
“We needed a road win in a tight game,” Mount View coach Jeremy Von Oesen said. “I’ll let Noah shoot all day long. He didn’t shoot enough for me tonight, to be honest. That’s something we’ll talk about.”
Hurd said he believed things were going to go the Mustangs’ way as soon as they started applying defensive pressure the entire length of the court.
“Our defense really just stepped it up,” Hurd said. “We kept getting the turnovers, and we made our free throws. After they started slipping and turning the ball over, we knew we had the momentum. We were hitting our shots.”
Mount View’s Declan Knowlton (14) grabs the rebound from Maranacook’s Jacob McLaughlin during a boys basketball game Tuesday in Readfield. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
“We’ve defensively shut some teams down in the second after having some rough starts, mostly on the road,” Von Oesen added. “We’re on and off with (full-court pressure), and at times we use it to try and pick things up. We felt like (Maranacook) really transition well, so we stayed away from it to try and not give up layups.”
Even after building a 9-point lead with less than half a period to play, Mount View’s work was not finished.
Brayden St. Pierre (game-high 18 points) hit a 3-pointer while falling to the ground and Tyler Hreben (10 points) connected on a 25-footer with 1:13 left that made it a 46-43 contest.
St. Pierre’s runner through the lane cut the Black Bear deficit to two in the final seconds, but a Tyler Russell free throw with 5.9 seconds left iced it for the Mustangs.
The teams slogged through three quarters. Maranacook’s two-three zone defense forced Mount View to be patient on the perimeter. Mount View countered with a physical brand of man-to-man defending.
Once the pace picked up with the Mount View press, so did the scoring. The teams combined for 34 fourth-quarter points after managing just 59 combined through the first 24 minutes of play.
“We started to play as a team, and that’s all it took,” Osborne said. “Sometimes the team comes out slow. That stuff just happens. But in the fourth quarter, we really brought it out.”
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