READFIELD — The Belfast Area High School boys basketball team prefers to play as fast as it can. But as Maranacook found out, the Lions can settle down and shoot when they need to as well.

Zane Bielenberg scored 35 points to lead Belfast to a 70-62 victory over the Black Bears in its season opener Tuesday, one in which the Lions used a sluggish first half from Maranacook to take command of the game, and then clutch baskets in the second half to finish it off.

“We want to accomplish three things. One is push the ball up, one is attack the rim and the third thing is get some wide-open outside shots,” Belfast coach Marty Messer said. “We have to have a healthy balance of all three things, and tonight, we did all three.”

The Lions burned the Black Bears (0-2) consistently with fast breaks, pouncing on Maranacook misses and turning them into high-percentage looks on the other end. That approach paid off on the scoresheet, as Belfast shot 50 percent (28-of-56) from the field.

“I think our style this year is to push the ball up and get a lot of easy baskets, 2-on-1s and 3-on-2s,” Messer said. “I think we achieved that tonight. … I’ve always preferred that style, but this year we have the makeup where we can do that.”

The pace flustered the Black Bears, who saw a 16-15 first quarter lead turn into a 39-30 halftime deficit.

“We need to put 32 minutes together. I think the difference in that game is they leaked out and got about 10 easy points in lay-ups,” Maranacook coach Rob Schmidt said. “That’s a mental breakdown on our part.”

Maranacook found its footing in the third quarter. Kyle Wilbur (19 points) scored on a drive, Silas Mohlar (13 points) sank back-to-back jumpers and Wilbur scored on another drive to even the score at 51 with 1:22 left in the third and swing momentum back to the Black Bears’ side.

“In the first half, they were all cheering whenever they scored,” said senior guard Hayden Elwell, who scored 12 points and grabbed four rebounds. “In the third quarter, I didn’t hear a single one.”

Belfast made its noise on the scoreboard, as Bielenberg hit a 3-pointer on the next possession. Mohlar sunk a 3-pointer from the right corner to tie the score at 54 with 25 seconds left, but the Lions again had a response ready when Nolan Woods (15 points) hit a three from the corner with 5 seconds left.

Woods fed Bielenberg inside to start the fourth quarter, then hit another three to bring the lead to 62-54. Maranacook didn’t get within four points the rest of the way.

“It’s hard to try to keep up with a team that keeps making basket after basket after basket when you try to stop them,” Elwell said.

“They made big shots. Kudos to them,” Schmidt said. “It seemed like every time we started to maybe pull away, they would answer.”

Bielenberg scored eight points in the fourth, hitting four straight free throws late to close out the victory.

“I feel like the shots just came to me. I feel like I didn’t push them too much,” Bielenberg said. “We took our time and ran the plays well.”

“He’s a cool performer,” Messer said. “He loves the big games, he’s always big in the close games like that.” Maranacook never found its rhythm from the floor, shooting 25-for-66 and only 3-for-15 as it tried to rally in the fourth.

“I think we did a much better job in the second half, but by then we were digging ourselves out of a hole,” Schmidt said. “We’re definitely an up-and-down team, we want to get out in transition, we want to run, we’re not afraid to get into a shooting match. … But we’re giving up 70 points a game right now, and that’s way too many. We’ve just got to clamp down on defense and do a much better job in that end, and the rest will take care of itself.”

Drew Bonifant — 621-5638

dbonifant@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @dbonifantMTM

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