FARMINGTON — After struggling early in the season, Mt. Blue has climbed to the .500 mark with it’s fourth straight win, beating Leavitt, 56-38, on Tuesday in a girls’ Class A Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference basketball game.

Caitlin Kane powered the Cougars win, scoring a career-high 33 points, including six straight to salt the game away early in the fourth quarter. Kane was prominent in every critical Mt. Blue offensive tactic in the game.

“Early in the season we were in a stretch where we didn’t win any close games,” Kane said. “Recently we have come together, we are playing better and winning games.”

Mt. Blue improves to 7-7 while Leavitt drops to 7-8. The win avenges a 32-29 loss to the Hornets on January 8 in Turner.

Owning a slim 12-9 lead after one quarter, Mt. Blue went to a 1-2-2 zone in the second quarter shutting down Leavitt’s attack and stymying the Hornets ability to find quality open shots.

“Our zone made a big difference,” Mt. Blue coach Gavin Kane said. “The way they run their offense we were able to take away a number of things but switching to the zone. We really did a good job in that 1-2-2 zone.”

Carlee Long hit a short jumper to open the quarter for Leavitt cutting the Mt. Blue lead to 12-11 but then Kane and the defense kicked in going on a 12-3 run to grab a 24-14 lead, with 49 seconds left until halftime.

“Mt. Blue played harder then we did tonight,” Leavitt coach Dave Gerrish said. “We did get some good looks they just didn’t go in.”

Kane opened the Cougars scoring binge in the second quarter scoring on back to back fast break layups before polishing off the run hitting a long 3-pointer and another blistering drive to set the stage for the second half.

Leavitt’s Chantel Eells hit a 3-point shot from the right side in the final seconds to cut Mt. Blue’s lead to 24-17 at halftime. Eells and Sophia Gilbert finished scoring 15 points each for the Hornets.

A back and forth start to the third quarter saw the Cougars lead cut to 30-24 when Eells banked in a drive to the basket with 4:22 left.

Mt. Blue’s Leah St. Laurent canned a pair of free throws sending the Cougars on an 11-3 spurt during the final 3:38 of the quarter. Kane’s 3-pointer from the left corner gave Mt. Blue a 41-27 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

“There was a point in the season where I got a little tentative with my offense,” Caitlin Kane said. “This past week I started to feel I was coming out of it.”

Kane scored six straight points early in the fourth quarter to ice the game for the Cougars. Four straight free throws and a fast break lay-up off a nice feed from teammate Emilee Eustis sealed the win as the lead swelled to 47-30 with 5:20 left in the game.

Eryn Doiron added 11 points for Mt. Blue.

The Cougars were impressive from the free throw line hitting 20 of 26 shots while the Hornets converted 5 of 12.