AUGUSTA — Jeff Hart has a pretty good idea how pressure basketball works.

In his 34 years of coaching at Camden Hills, his Windjammers have reaped significant results by causing opponents to play at a frantic pace.

Tuesday night, Cony coach T.J. Maines and his 10-man rotation turned the tables on the Windjammers, forcing 31 turnovers in a 65-51 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A boys basketball victory.

Cony senior Nijual Davis scored a career-high 26 points while teammates T.J. Cusick and Nate Parlin added 15 and 13, respectively, to lead the Rams.

Both teams are 1-1 in Class A North play.

This game was never really close. The Rams jumped to an 18-6 lead in the first quarter as Cusick and Davis scored eight points apiece. The story of the period as well as the game was Cony’s relentless full-court pressure. The Rams forced 12 turnovers in the first quarter alone. One of which ended with a steal and assist from Carter Cleaves to Davis for a layup.

“I’ve coached that style for a lot of years,” Hart said. “You can’t avoid it. You just can’t. Your kids have to play instinctive and you’ve got to try to get them in the right places and they’re still going to make some turnovers.”

Davis opened the second quarter with a three-point play and followed it up with a 3-pointer from the left side to make it 24-8. The 6-foot-2 forward scored 11 of Cony’s 13 points in the quarter, finishing the half with 19.

“Nijual had some great moments on the jayvees (last year),” Maines said. “But he didn’t get meaningful minutes on the varsity but he had some fantastic moments where we thought ‘all right, he can be pretty good for us.’ ”

Davis hit a three from the right side to open the second half, then Parlin took over. He canned a three from the right corner and followed with a three-point play. He scored 10 of his 13 points in the quarter and opened the fourth period with his third 3-pointer of the night.

“I didn’t play much (last year),” Parlin said. “I put in a lot of time in the off-season and tried to work to get better. I worked a lot on my shot.”

Maines shuffled players on and off the floor about every two minutes and the pressure never let up.

“A fast-paced game, that’s kind of how we play,” Cusick said. “Everyone buys into the system and believes in coach Maines.”

The Rams led 60-39 early in the fourth quarter then scored just four points over the final three minutes as Maines went even deeper into his bench.

“Our hopes is get the pace going, get turnovers and be unselfish with the ball and play at a faster pace than they’re comfortable playing at.”

Dalton Oakes led Camden Hills with 13 points but the Windjammers never looked comfortable in their offense.

“One of the things I always thought made us successful when you are doing that,” Hart said, “is it’s pretty hard to simulate in practice.”

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