Rams Dishearten Vikings

by Chris Marston
     
     AUGUSTA- Thursday nights rematch with the Cony Rams was a must win game for the Oxford Hills boys varsity basketball team, to keep their hopes of making the Eastern Maine Class A playoffs alive. Cony dismissed those hopes with a 61 to 55 victory over the Vikings in this KVAC regular season match up.
     
     In what was essentially a playoff game for both teams, the score reflected the equality of the combatants early. Cony’s Ryan Minoty dropped in 9 of his game-high 21 points in the first quarter to give the Rams a slim three points lead at 15 to 12.
     
     “We knew he (Minoty) was good. He’s probably a top five player in our league. He can score inside and shoot the three. But we had our best defender on Walker Cooper,” Vikings head coach Scott Graffam pointed out.
     
     The Rams added to their lead in the second quarter when they outscored the Vikings 17 to 12 to take a 32 to 23 lead into the locker room at halftime.
     
     In the third quarter Cony sophomore Walker Cooper connected for 7 of his
     12 points in the game, as the two teams exchanged blows and the Rams
     maintained their nine point lead at 48 to 39. Oxford Hills senior Matt
     Verrier tossed in 7 of his team-high 18 points in the fourth quarter to lead a late Vikings charge that cut their deficit to five points. But the Rams (8-8) made just enough free throws, going 7 for 14 from the line, in the fourth quarter to escape with the six point win.
     
     “I’m very pleased with how hard we played again. In the second half we stepped up on defense. We got up into passing lanes and we denied a lot of cutters. But we didn’t shoot well from the foul line. They shot 54 percent and we shot 34 percent from the floor and that proved to be the difference,” Graffam noted.
     
     Senior Jake Hall tossed in 11 points for the Vikings (6-10) and junior Matt McVety added 10 points in the loss.