BANGOR, Maine — The Oxford Hills High School basketball team from South Paris put on an eye-opening shooting clinic at the Red Barry Gym on Tuesday night.
The Vikings hit their first 11 shots from the floor and then responded to a Bangor rally with a 15-0 run in the third period en route to a 70-42 Class AA North victory.
Oxford Hills senior guard Brady Delamater poured in a career-high 26 points thanks to a 10-for-17 shooting performance.
“That was pretty cool. We were hot coming out of the gate,” said Delamater. “A lot of us can shoot it. It was bound to happen that one of us would go crazy.
“I was feeling it. It just came to me. And my guys were hitting me. My teammates made it really easy for me,” Delamater added.
“We missed five in a row with a chance to win the game against Edward Little (61-60 loss),” said first-year Oxford Hills coach Joe Oufiero, who replaced the retired Scott Graffam. “But the boys are resilient. They didn’t let that bother them. They kept shooting the basketball.
“Never up, never in,” continued Oufiero. “If it doesn’t go up, you can’t make those buckets.
“We had a long bus ride and we talked about coming out focused in pre-game. We shot the basketball well,” added Oufiero. “We have a good group of boys. We have six seniors and six juniors and they just compete.”
Bangor jumped out to an 8-5 lead but the Vikings outscored the Rams 16-4 over the rest of the first period to take a 21-14 lead.
They made all nine of their field goal attempts in the opening eight minutes.
They hit their first two in the second quarter before finally missing and they rattled off a 17-3 run that built the lead to 40-19 before Bangor received 3-pointers from Liam Vigue and Lucas Smith to close out the half and narrow the deficit to 15.
Oxford Hills shot 17-for-23 from the floor in the first half compared to Bangor’s 8-for-24.
Delamater had 16 of his points in the opening half.
The Vikings wound up shooting 64.6 percent from the floor for the game (31-for-48).
Bangor carried that momentum into the second half and Vigue hit a 3-pointer and a traditional 3-point play during an 8-2 run that closed the gap to 42-33 with 6:25 remaining.
But the Vikings then went on their 15-0 run behind senior guard Brady Roy’s six points and Delamater’s five to lock up the win.
The tenacious Vikings forced eight turnovers in the third period and turned several of them into easy fast-break baskets.
“We both came out really hot but we kind of cooled down a little and they stayed hot,” said Bangor junior guard-forward Harry Fitzpatrick. “We lost our energy throughout the game and their energy kept going up.”
“We were really out of focus,” said Bangor first-year head coach Aaron Pinckney. “I’ve watched this team throughout summer ball and the preseason and this is the first game they were really out of focus. We all got punched in the mouth.
“But that happens. We’ll be better,” added Pinckney. “They held their heads high and we know tomorrow is another day.”
Delamater had two rebounds and two assists to go with his 26 points. Junior Cameron Pulkkinen had 11 points, and four rebounds; junior Brayden Murch had eight points, eight rebounds and three assists and Roy and senior guard Carter Holbrook had six points apiece.
Holbrook had two assists.
Junior forward Josh Grunkemeyer’s 11 points and two assists paced Bangor. Vigue had nine points and three rebounds and Fitzpatrick contributed eight points and four rebounds. Freshman Nate Grunkemeyer, Josh’s brother, chipped in with seven points, two rebounds and two assists.
The Rams lost junior forward Will Houghton to an ankle injury with 3:23 left in the first period.
Both teams will be in action again on Friday as Bangor visits Brewer for a 6:30 game and Oxford Hills hosts Cony of Augusta at 7.
