Showdown in Saco

The North Country Mavericks won a game that was so close against the Lustre Christian Lions last Friday that Coach Barry Malone called a time out with only .5 seconds left on the clock to tell his defense one thing.

"I said don't be incredibly, completely, frickin stupid," Coach Malone said. "I didn't say the bad one, I said frickin."

Senior captain Cache Younkin scored 32 points in his team's 51-47 win over the Lions. His big night was boasted by Co-captain Christian Menge, who scored 10 points.

Going into the fourth quarter, North Country had a 42-30 lead over Lustre, but the Lions came roaring back in the fourth with a 13-3 run, bringing the score to 45-43 with 2:41 remaining in the game. Lustre's Zach Brown would tie the game with a pair of free throws.

Younkin would draw a foul on a layup attempt and knock down one of two attempts, giving North Country a one point lead. After a stop on defense, Menge would draw a foul on a layup attempt and then knock down one of two attempts making the score 47-45 with 1:31.

John McColly would score three points in the win but two of those points came off of a key steal that he took coast to coast to give the Mavericks a 49-45 lead with 1:10.

Lustre would miss their next shot attempt, give an offensive rebound and then draw a late foul, putting Brown back on the line, where he sank both shots cutting the Mavs' lead down to 49-47 with 46 seconds remaining before Coach Malone took a short timeout.

Younkin would make it a two possession game on a layup, giving Lustre 30 seconds left. Lustre would collect two offensive boards before Lustre's Kyle Pederson drew a foul sending him to the line for two shots with 15.4 seconds remaining. He would miss both. Lustre would miss three consecutive shots after snatching an offensive board on Pederson's second free throw miss.

North Country was still unable to cleanly get a much needed rebound, knocking the ball out of bounds, giving Lustre the ball back with .5 seconds remaining, when Coach Malone called the timeout.

Lustre was able to get off a trey attempt that rimmed out as the North Country defense gave the Lion shooters plenty of room to solidify their win.

"We can win the close games," Co-captain Trey Simanton said. "We gotta win the close games. We gotta keep going at them, even when they make runs late in the fourth quarter. You gotta keep your head in the game and just play your own tempo and your own style of basketball."

Menge had previously told the PCN that he needed to work on his post moves on offense and defense. Menge grabbed key rebounds in the win.

"I was just jacked and I wanted to win," Menge said. "Coach told me to be really strong in the post in the second half because that first half, my shot wasn't falling. He said let's work it in and be aggressive. Those second chance points, garbage points are where I thrived tonight."

The Maverick captains have all been trying to improve of their game and themselves in general in 2017.

"I'm just trying to be stronger down low, when I get the offense rebounds and get the ball in the post," Simanton said.

Simanton also confirmed that he is hitting the weight room. Younkin also had some input on the New Year so far.

"Winning is always good," Younkin said. "I guess we didn't really set any resolutions but winning is a good thing. We've been working on our press during practice and that was a big key for us tonight. We ran it in the first half and it was effective."

Younkin noted that the team had been working on their pressure defense for the past four weeks and haven't really used the press in a game until the start of 2017.

The Mavericks will see Brockton in Saco on Thursday, January 19 and then see Glasgow on Saturday, January 21.

Games against Brockton in Saco start at 4:30 p.m. with Boys' JV action. The varsity games start with the girls scheduled to play at 6 p.m. and the boys scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

The games in Glasgow kick off with the JV games starting at 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. The varsity games are scheduled to start at 4 p.m. for the boys and then 5:30 p.m. for the girls.