FARMINGDALE — Utilizing two weapons it hasn’t relied on most of the season, the Jay Tigers picked up a big victory Wednesday night.

The Tigers used a 2-3 zone and solid free-throw shooting to pull away from Hall-Dale, 49-35, in a match-up of Mountain Valley Conference teams trying to force their way into the Western Class C playoff picture.

Jake Bessey led all scorers with 17 points for the Tigers (7-6), while Zach Bonnevie added 12 points.

The free throws and the zone both became necessities in the second half, and both served the Tigers well. Jay held Hall-Dale to 16 percent shooting from the field.

“If you combined all of our games before this, we played zone more in this one game that we did in the last couple of seasons,” Bessey said.

The Bulldogs made just two field goals in each quarter, and five of those baskets were 3-pointers.

“I think we did a good job contesting most of the night,” Jay coach Brian Kelly said. “We don’t play a lot of zone. I went to it because I had three big guys with three fouls. I thought we did a great job rotating. I complimented them on doing something we don’t do a ton of in practice.”

The Tigers’ 2-3 held the Bulldogs (5-8) without a field goal from Tyler French’s 3-pointer that pulled Hall-Dale within 31-29 17 seconds into the  fourth quarter until Sam Shepherd’s 3 with 56 seconds left made it 47-35.

In between, Bessey, Bonnevie and Nat Shink (nine points, 11 rebounds, three blocks) formed a conga line to the charity stripe, combining to sink 12 of 19 free-throw attempts to help the Tigers pull away.

Jay shot just 24 percent from the floor for the game and had much of its inside offense neutralized by Shepherd (12 points, nine rebounds, six blocks), a 6-foot-4 sophomore. But the Tigers found Shepherd and his teammates a little too eager to go after their shots and started using their aggressiveness against them to draw fouls.

“We made some free throws tonight,” Kelly said. “We were 22-for-33, which is much better than we were shooting at the beginning of the year.”

While Shepherd’s presence put points in the paint at a premium, Shink and Storer (eight points, 10 rebounds) pounded the offensive glass despite their own foul trouble to give the Tigers second opportunities and get to the free-throw line.

“I kept telling Kyle, ‘He’s going to keep going up for blocks, so just keep trying to up-fake him,” Shink said. “He kind of had us a little worried at the beginning because of the height advantage he had over both of us, but we just had to box him out and contest his shots.”

“Nate Shink has really come on here the end of the season,” Kelly said. “He had 17 points (Tuesday) night (against Mt. Abram) and 18 when we played Dirigo, which is good because obviously Kyle Storer is the one that teams know and key on, but then we’ve got guys like him and James Barker that can come in.”

Shink scored five straight points as the Tigers answered French’s trey with a 12-2 run. His putback of his own miss made it 36-31. Bessey made three of six from the line, Barker took a charge to force the Bulldogs’ 20th turnover and Bonnevie banked a runner to put the spread in double digits for good.

The Tigers went into the night 13th in the Heal Point standings, one spot behind the Bulldogs and three out of the 10th and final playoff slot.

“It’s far from over. There’s plenty to play but this was essential,” said Kelly, whose team travels to ninth-ranked Telstar on Friday.