Hall started fast out of the locker room twice Tuesday night. But Newman finished strong in both halves to claim a share of the Three Rivers East title.

After the Red Devils rallied to take a third-quarter lead, the Comets outscored them by 18 the rest of the way in a 68-55 victory in Sterling.

The win was the 29th for the top-ranked team in Class 1A, and Newman (29-1, 9-1 TRAC East) earned a piece of the league title with Mendota; the two teams split their two games this season.

The poise that comes with being No. 1 showed when the Comets were facing a 45-40 deficit midway through the third quarter.

“We just started getting happier to be there and started playing better,” senior Evan Bushman said. “You’ve just got to play with momentum and confidence. We started playing better defense, a couple of guys knocked down shots for us, so we started getting momentum and everybody’s confidence spiked.”

“We’ve been in a lot of games where it’s been close or we’ve been down, and we just find a way to stay calm and finish out the game,” classmate Garret Matznick said, “because we know we have enough players, enough talent that everyone can do their job and we can finish the game strong.”

But it was Hall (13-17, 1-9) that came out of the gates faster, especially after halftime. Greyson Bickett and Noah Plym each hit a pair of 3-pointers in a 16-2 run to turn a 38-29 halftime deficit into a five-point lead with 3:38 to go in the third.

“It’s shooting the ball, getting it to the guys we wanted to get it to,” Braden Curran said. “Noah and Greyson were hitting shots, and if they weren’t shooting it, they saw us cut through to break that 1-3-1 that they’ve always had. Some things came our way, some things didn’t, but we just wanted to play together.

“They’re a good team, obviously, so we just had to keep playing hard.”

Plym was on fire for the first three quarters, knocking down five 3s and keeping the momentum going for the Red Devils, who were still within 56-53 midway through the fourth period.

“All year, we’ve come out really slow, so it’s been a huge point of coming out and making shots, getting ahead early and playing good defense,” Plym said. “Obviously this is a team you want to beat, being ranked in the state – coming into this gym it’s even harder – but we worked on it all week, on just coming in and making shots. We just kind of fell flat in the fourth.”

Newman responded over the final 11 minutes. Tyson Williams’ turnaround jumper in the lane and Evan Bushman’s sixth 3 of the game ignited a closing 28-10 run, and George Jungerman hit a 3 to end the third quarter and a wide-open layup to start the fourth to put the Comets back in front 50-47.

“We kind of just had to figure out what we were doing wrong and execute off that, just see what was working for us, see what they were doing defensively,” Bushman said. “We started pretty slow, but we finished on a fast pace, which is good.”

Bushman finished with 22 points, three rebounds three assists and four steals, and Matznick had a double-double with 10 points, 10 assists and three steals. Jungerman added 12 points and five rebounds; Williams had 11 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals; and Asher Ernst chipped in nine points and six rebounds in a balanced effort by the Comets.

“Obviously we started off slow; not having John [Rowzee, who left early with an injury] hurts a little bit, because he brings a lot of energy for our team,” said Matznick, who hit six free throws over the final 1:27 to seal the win. “They were getting offensive rebounds, and we just weren’t boxing out really well, which we’ll improve on; we’ve had those games where they find a way to get every rebound, it just happens like that.

“But we were able to make enough shots to keep us in the game, then just close out the game at the end.”

Plym poured in 25 points to go with five assists, three rebounds and two steals. Curran added a double-double with 12 points, 14 rebounds, three assists and two steals. Bickett hit three 3s for nine points to go with four rebounds and two assists, Hunter Edgcomb had four points and six rebounds, and Luke Bryant chipped in three points, three rebounds and four assists for the Red Devils.

“The last five or so games, we’ve played tight, kept it close. We’ve worked hard, played good defense,” Curran said. “We’re confident going into the regional next week, and we’re expecting to win some games.”