GRAY — When Kennebunk freshman Joseph Bush opened the second half with a 3-point attempt that got stuck between the rim and the backboard, it looked like it could be a sign of things to come for the Rams. Gray-New Gloucester got possession of the basketball, then promptly tied the game up on a John Henry Villanueva put-back.

The Rams had a big lead early, but let the Patriots back in it, and the initial moments of the second half could have been the start of the game turning in Gray-NG’s favor. Instead, Kennebunk went on a 9-0 run, held off another Gray-NG charge, then pulled away on the backs of its veterans for a 72-63 victory in a WMC boys’ basketball game Tuesday.

Kennebunk (1-1) jumped ahead 9-1 two minutes into the contest on a pair of Zachary MacKinnon 3s and a triple from Cameron Lovejoy. That eight-point advantage held at 12-4 before Zack Haskell’s running layup gave the Gray-NG (0-2) its first field goal of the game.

Haskell started a Patriots run, scoring seven points in the quarter, then Villanueva took it from there with seven of his own. The Kennebunk lead was just 18-17 after one quarter.

“He’s a three-year player for us,” Gray-NG head coach Ryan Deschenes said of Haskell (17 points). “One of the better athletes in this conference that is a good two-way player.”

Zachery Brady nailed a baseline jumper to open the second quarter and give the Patriots their first lead of the game. But two possessions later Justin Wiggins intercepted a Gray-NG pass and hit a 3 the other way to regain the lead for the Rams.

Kennebunk held the lead for the remainder of the period, and went into halftime up 35-33. Free throws kept the Patriots in it, as they were 13 of 19 from the line while the Rams were called for 14 fouls.

“We understand the new emphasis, so it was just us learning how to play better with our feet and not relying on trying to use our hands,” Kennebunk head coach Barrett Belanger said of the fouls. “It’s something we have to learn, or we’ll be in trouble every game.”

While Gray-NG did damage from the charity stripe, Kennebunk was doing the majority of its work from the field. A nine-point run after the Patriots knotted the game in the early moments of the third quarter was capped off by five straight points from MacKinnon, who finished with a game-high 26 points.

Villanueva stopped the run with a 3-pointer. Those three points gave him 21 in the game up to that point, but he was held to just three the remainder of the game.

A Wiggins 3 gave Kennebunk its largest lead of the game, at 54-44, with 30 seconds left in the third, before John Martin beat the quarter-ending buzzer with a layup to make it 54-46.

The Patriots twice got it to within five points — on a Brady and-just over a minute in, and a Martin 3 with just under two minutes to play — but the Kennebunk veterans closed out the win.

“I was very happy with the fourth quarter,” said Belanger, “where every time they hit a big shot, or it looked like they were going to make a run, either Travon or Zach or Ryan (Coughlan) or Justin — all the guys coming back from last year — came out and made a big play.”

Senior center Travon Bradford scored seven of his 15 points in the fourth quarter — all while playing with four fouls.

“At the end of the day, the MacKinnon kid is one of the best players in the conference. He made a lot of tough shots,” said Descehenes. “And the bug guy (Bradford) got going down low with his position. Those two players are a load. They’re three-year starters for them, and it showed down the stretch.

“We just couldn’t get over the hump. Their experience showed.”

wkramlich@sunjournal.com