East Lyme — The thing that was most at stake Monday night, pride, still resulted in an East Lyme-Waterford high school boys’ basketball game in which Waterford coach Bill Bassett, late in the third quarter and trying to call a timeout, still had to sprint halfway onto the court to be heard by an official.

Waterford led by 14, then trailed by one after watching rival East Lyme reel off an 18-3 run in the fourth quarter before finishing with a 54-47 victory.

The Lancers started the game with a 1-7 record, East Lyme 2-4.

“I just had a feeling that we were going to pull it through,” Waterford’s 6-foot-9 center Juan Morel said. “That 1-7 record, that’s not showing who we are. Just coming here for our rivalry in East Lyme did a lot for us. We pulled it through.”

Morel finished with 18 points and 15 rebounds, Logan Peabody had 16 points and Evan Piotrowski 10 assists for Waterford, while East Lyme senior John Bureau countered with 12 points all in the fourth quarter in a cacophonous atmosphere, both sides of the gym filled to capacity.

Bassett wasn’t entirely surprised by the East Lyme comeback, even though it felt like the Lancers had things in their grasp with a 41-30 lead after three quarters.

“It’s a no-doubter,” Bassett said. “It does not matter who’s playing the game, Juan Morel or (graduates) Liam Spellman, Mikey Buscetto, Ryan O’Connell, Sean O’Connell. It does not matter who’s playing this game.

“It’s gonna be an absolute barnburner and slugfest because these two teams get jacked up for each other and they play so hard, no lead is ever safe. No lead is safe.”

Waterford finished the second quarter strong with baskets by C.J. Landry and Piotrowski to lead 23-15 at halftime. Morel and Peabody had six points each in the first half for the Lancers, while Oliver Hibbard had six for East Lyme.

Morel scored to start the third quarter, pushing the lead back to double-digits for the Lancers. East Lyme got consecutive hoops from Gavin O’Brien on an offensive rebound and from Owen Elmer, who scored over Morel and drew the foul to carve the lead back to 25-16.

Peabody then struck with a 3 for Waterford, however, and the Lancers pushed the lead to as high as 41-27 in the third before East Lyme’s Gavin White ended the quarter with a buzzer-beater to get the Vikings with 41-30 ... and started East Lyme’s 18-3 run.

Bureau started the fourth with another long-range shot to make it 41-33. Waterford led 44-35 on a drive by Peabody but Bureau then commanded the quarter and the game with seven straight points for the Vikings.

Bureau was fouled, hitting both ends of a one-and-one, and stayed at the line to shoot two more shots after a technical was assessed on the same play. Bureau went 4-for-4 to make the score 44-39 with 5:57 to play.

Bureau followed by unloading a 3-pointer to pull the Vikings within 44-42, prompting Bassett’s charge onto the court in demand of a timeout. And with 3:00 remaining East Lyme’s Mike Timpano added a 3 to give East Lyme its first lead of the game.

Landry scored as Waterford reclaimed the lead for good and Morel made it a three-point margin at 48-45 on an assist by Piotrowski. Bureau got East Lyme back within 48-47, but Waterford again found Morel underneath and Peabody and Landry finished it by going 4-for-4 from the foul line.

“We started playing defense, uptempo offense and it really got us back into the game,” East Lyme first-year coach Tim Strong said. “... You’ve got to give the kids credit for fighting back. That was huge. I give them a lot of credit.”

Bassett referred to some of the narrow losses Waterford has had to this juncture, including a four-point loss to Newington and two-point loss to Hall in back-to-back games in December.

“We’ve lost a lot of games by a small margin,” Bassett said. “If we could ever just get over that little hump, I felt the avalanche is going to go. When (East Lyme) took that lead, I thought, ‘Ohhhhh. Are we going to lay down again?’

“Today was the day we didn’t. They did what they had to do and we got the win. ... We’re 1-7, now we’re 2-7, halfway through the season guys start to have some quit. But there’s not one quit on this team. Not one quit.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com