LEWISTON — Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference rivals Lewiston and Brunswick won’t get to play each other during the state basketball tournament in late February, with the Blue Devils classified in AA North and the Dragons slotted into Class A South.

That’s a shame, but at least the two fan bases got to see the matchup at all when the teams clashed Tuesday in Lewiston.

Brunswick rarely led in the game, but the Dragons got a go-ahead basket from Charlotte MacMillan in the final half-minute, then forced a turnover in the final seconds for a 39-38 victory in a highly competitive girls’ basketball game.

“It was very intense. It’s always intense when we play Brunswick,” Lewiston coach Lynn Girouard said. “Both teams worked hard and it was whoever was going to put the basket in at the end, and they ended up doing that. It could have gone either way very easily.”

The game was building toward a nail-biting ending from the midway point of the third quarter, when the Blue Devils (4-3) called a timeout, leading 27-25. The Dragons (6-2) took the lead a minute later on a baseline jumper from Sabrina Armstrong — it was just their second lead of the game, and first since briefly going up 17-16 late in the second quarter.

The score was tied 29-29 heading into the fourth, and it never swayed by more than two points the rest of the way.

“It was a great atmosphere. Lewiston had a great crowd,” Brunswick coach Sam Farrell said. “And we had to overcome foul trouble and still squeak away with a win, hit some shots down at the end, and kids off the bench playing well. That’s what you hope you can do in the tournament, so we saw it tonight.”

Armstrong was the Dragons’ leading scorer through three quarters, but she picked up a pair of offensive fouls in the first 82 seconds of the fourth to foul out. She finished with eight points.

Bench players Brooke Barker and Rosalie White each made baskets during the back-and-forth final period. Senior starter Madeline Suhr (team-high nine points) made two baskets of her own. But it was sophomore point guard MacMillan who had the biggest bucket of the game for the Dragons.

In a game that saw post players from both teams battle for seemingly every rebound all game long, MacMillan corralled a carom with 27 seconds left and put the winning points back in.

“When your point guard can get a rebound and put-back to win the game with 27 seconds — when that’s your point guard, and she gets the rebound, that’s huge,” Farrell said.

The Blue Devils got three baskets from Victoria Harris in the fourth, and a circus-shot 3-pointer from freshman guard Hannah Chaput.

“I mean, Chaput banks in a shot from the corner that we still can’t figure out how it banked in,” Farrell said. “And a lot of times that can deflate you, and instead we rallied around our offense into our defense.”

Lewiston turned to Chaput for a chance at the game-winning shot, but a turnover thanks to an off-target pass her way never gave the Blue Devils that chance.

It was just one of many turnovers that haunted them, and helped keep the Dragons within striking distance all night long — thanks in part to their aggressive zone defense.

“It’s an aggressive zone, yeah,” Girouard said. “It made us be … we got a little lazy with the ball. We weren’t attacking as much. I definitely think we had our options — Victoria was wide open in the middle most of the night. We just got to be more patient I think.”

Harris finished with a game-high 16 points. Chaput added seven.

“It was a good one. Not the way we wanted it to end, but yeah, it was a good game,” Girouard said. “We get to play them one more time, so I’m excited about that.”

“I’ll tell you, the last two, three years we’ve had some awesome games with Lewiston. Not always in our favor, but tonight it worked out,” Farrell said.

wkramlich@sunjournal.com