GARDINER — Gardiner Area High School senior Brian Dunn spent Saturday morning working his shift at Hannaford Supermarket. Saturday afternoon he delivered the goods.

The 5-foot-9 point guard scored a career high 34 points, including 13 in a pair of overtime periods, to push the Tigers past Maranacook 92-79 in a double OT thriller.

Dunn also hauled in 15 rebounds and held high-scoring Kyle Wilbur to seven points in the second half.

The win was the most important to date for Gardiner (6-7), which jumped from the 10th and final tournament spot in Class A North to sixth place after the victory. Maranacook, which competes in Class B South, fell to 12-2.

“We definitely had to have this game,” Dunn said. “We really needed those Heal points for a chance to get into the tournament.”

Dunn canned a critical 3-pointer from the left corner with 14 seconds left in regulation play to tie the game at 69-all. He hit three free throws in the first overtime before taking over in the second with four drives to the basket and two more foul shots.

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“The seniors had to will us a win,” Gardiner coach Jason Cassidy. “He didn’t want to lose, he wants to get us to the tournament. Brian plays awful hard for us.”

Senior guard Liang-Zhi Lin made three important 3-pointers down the stretch, two of those with the Tigers trailing in regulation and the first overtime. His final 3-pointer from the right side helped the Tigers pull out to an 86-79 lead.

“I just come into the game and play my game,” said Lin, who didn’t play basketball last season. “I hit a few 3s for us, that’s all I could do. At the beginning of the season I was kind of cold.”

The Tigers got a big game as well from senior center Jordan Lamb, who finished with 18 points, 15 rebounds, six assists and five blocked shots. Wilbur led the Black Bears with 24 points while Kent Mohlar added 20 and Jason Brooks 11. Mohlar had a chance to break a tie with two seconds left in regulation but uncharacteristically missed two free throws.

“I put him there 10 out of 10 times,” Maranacook coach Rob Schmidt said.

The Bears went up 76-71 in the first overtime following Silas Mohlar’s third 3-pointer of the game and a layup from Hayden Elwell. But three free throws from Dunn down the stretch and Lin’s high-arcing 3 from the right corner over Kent Mohlar’s outstretched hand with 31 seconds left got the Tigers to a second overtime.

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Dunn took charge in the second OT, sandwiched four drives to the basket around another 3 from Lin.

“I don’t know,” Dunn said of his performance. “Everything was clicking, home (court) advantage and we got our momentum going.”

The Tigers came out firing and took a 27-17 lead after a quarter behind Dunn and Eli Fish, who scored eight of his 13 points in the quarter. They led 41-32 at the half, but the third quarter was another story. The Black Bears went to a 1-3-1 defense to keep Lamb out of the middle and everyone contributed on offense. Elwell opened with a 3 from the left side and Kent Mohlar and Wilbur followed with three-point plays. Brooks, who scored eight points in the quarter, wrapped two 3-pointers around Wilbur’s layup to put the Black Bears in from 51-45.

“We need to have all our guys involved,” Schmidt said.

Both teams dealt with foul trouble but it affected the Bears more as center Levi Emery missed most of the first half and later fouled out in the fourth quarter.

“That’s a big impact on the game,” Schmidt said. “He rebounds a lot for us and he had 21 points at Spruce (Mountain) the other night. He’s potentially a huge impact player.”


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