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FARMINGTON — For a young, fatigued group missing a key player, this was a dogged effort from the Mt. Blue boys basketball team.

Still, Bangor had an answer for everything the Cougars threw at it and earned a 60-51 victory on Tuesday night at Mt. Blue High School. It was a much needed win for the Rams in a matchup of teams battling for seeding in the middle of the Class A North pack.

“They moved the ball well and also made a lot of shots,” said Mt. Blue coach Troy Norton. “With our zone, it’s designed to force contested shots so we can rebound, but tonight, they just made too many of those contested shots. That’s a credit to them.”

HOW BANGOR DID IT

• The Rams (8-7) made 3-pointers — all kinds of them. Whether the triples were contested shots or the rare open looks, Bangor seemed to bury them. The Rams made 10 treys in all.

• Harrison Fitzpatrick. The Bangor senior made five 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 23 points. He also drained a couple of key baseline jumpers late to give Bangor breathing room after Mt. Blue (9-6) pulled to within a couple possessions.

“Our philosophy was to really get the ball in the middle and cause the defense to collapse,” said Fitzpatrick. “Once they collapsed, that really opened opportunities for us to get a lot of outside shots, and we happened to hit a lot of those shots tonight.”

• Smart play to close out the game. Although the Rams weren’t necessarily stalling late, the Rams were content to let the clock melt as they looked for the perfect shot. They did so effectively, committing just one turnover against a Mt. Blue team hunting for them, and going 7 of 10 from the line in the fourth quarter.

“We were playing to get a high-quality shot, and in that situation, we could either get to the basket or get fouled,” said Bangor coach Jay Kemble. “We had things on our side with them having to get into that foul piece, and our kids made foul shots.”

WHAT IT MEANS

• Bangor vaults Mt. Blue and Lewiston into fourth place in Class A North. It’s the second straight significant win for the Rams, who bounced back from a tough loss on Jan. 20 at Oxford Hills by taking down the Blue Devils on Friday.

• A lack of depth showed for Mt. Blue. Oliver Cormier, the Cougars’ leading scorer at 15 points per game, missed his third consecutive game with an ankle sprain, and his absence showed for a Mt. Blue team that’s heavily reliant on its top players.

“Tonight was the first night it felt like we were really missing Oliver,” Norton said. “That lack of depth really hurt us; our guys were gassed. You could just tell (Bangor was) deeper, and even though we played hard, they made more shots than us tonight.”

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

“They have a lot of length and athleticism and get up and down the floor well, and we’re a little more methodical, so it was a good clash of styles. It just came down to whether you can make shots under pressure, and we were able to make a lot of shots under pressure.” — Bangor coach Jay Kemble

STAT LEADERS

• Bangor: Harrison Fitzpatrick (23 points), Liam Vigue (18 points, six rebounds).

• Mt. Blue: Cooper Abell (21 points, six rebounds), Evan Drake (20 points).

UP NEXT

• Bangor: at Edward Little (11-4), 7 p.m. Friday

• Mt. Blue: at Brunswick (11-4), 6:30 p.m. Friday