WELLS — You wouldn’t have known the difference on the expression of Troy Brown, the Wells boys basketball coach.

Between his exuberance on the sidelines after a Zach Deshaies layup to start the second half, to his grin from ear-to-ear when the contest was over, Brown looked like he had beaten the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, instead of pulling off a down-to-the-wire 50-45 win over Old Orchard Beach on Wednesday night.

He had every right in the world to be happy. The Warriors, a Class B squad, just beat the Seagulls, one of the top three teams in Western Class C this season, with an 8-0 run at the end of the fourth quarter, six of which came from forward Alex Furness, who scored a game-high 15 points.

On top of that, It’s the third straight win for Wells, who started off the season with a 1-3 record in its first four games.

The Warriors are standing pretty in the Western Class B standings, as they reside in sixth place in the MPA Standings with a 7-4 record. Wells has come a long way from the 2-16 record of last season.

Though Furness – a senior who transferred back to Wells after winning a Class A state title with Cheverus last season – served as the closer for Wells, it was the play of the surrounding cast that set the tone for the Warriors. Wells guard Doug McLean provided the opening spark, scoring all six of his points as part of a 6-0 run for the Warriors in the first minute of the game. Paul McDonough chipped in with 10 points on offense, and Josh Ingalls fought down in the post to score eight points.

“Doug McLean did an excellent job [defensively] on their best shooter,” Brown said. “He just kind of got us going, that’s the kind of kid he is. He’ll go out and play defense, not score a point and be happy as long as we win. Tonight, he decided to work a little bit harder than everyone else.”

But where the team excelled as a whole was on defense. The Warriors maintained consistent pressure throughout the night on the Old Orchard offense, creating turnovers.

“What I was telling our kids in the locker room was in our last two games, we held Falmouth to 40, and we held these guys to 45 tonight,” Brown said. “If we can keep teams in the 40s, I believe we’re in business. Early in the year, we were letting people score 57-60 points, and sometimes we would win, sometimes we would lose. But if we keep teams in the 40s, that’s to our advantage.”

The Gulls found ways around the defense at times, mostly by running, or creating breakaway opportunities from the Wells defense for layups. Old Orchard also got great play in the post from forwards Jason Dutton, Nate Dow and Rajheem Lang. Dutton, in particular, scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Gulls guard Andrew Fleury also drove the lane on many occasions, tying Dutton with an output of 13 points.

“We had some costly turnovers, and we missed some rebounds,” Old Orchard head coach John Regan said. “I thought Wells had some second and third opportunities, and that hurts, you have to keep them off the glass.”

The game was equally important for the now 7-3 Gulls, currently third in the Western Class C standings. Old Orchard proved to not only be one of the top teams in Class C, but that it could go toe-to-toe with a Class B team as well.

While he wanted the win, Regan was very happy with the play of his team.

“I’m proud of them,” Regan said. “I’m proud of the effort they put in against a very good Class B team and played tough, we just couldn’t seem to convert when we needed to.”

The schedule will be kind to both teams heading into the stretch for the final games of the season. Old Orchard has Traip Academy, one of its tougher opponents, before playing a total of four games against both Sacopee Valley and Gould Academy, who have a combined record of 4-12. Wells still has second encounters with York and Cape Elizabeth, both ranked higher in the Western Class B standings, but finishes the season with games against Fryeburg, Freeport, and Class C Waynflete. The combined record for all three teams is 8-21.

Old Orchard hits the road to play against Traip on Friday, while Wells travels to Fryeburg Academy today for a 6:30 p.m. contest.

— Contact Dave Dyer at 282-1535 ext. 318.