The Fraser Ramblers started their game against the Cousino Patriots looking like a team completely in control — offense was coming easy, defense was locking in and, after the first quarter, they led by 11 points.

But Cousino wasn’t going to go down easy.

The Patriots opened the second and third quarters on 7-0 and 9-0 runs, respectively, and hit a half-court buzzer beater to end the first half, stealing all of the Ramblers’ momentum on their way to a 60-45 over their Macomb Area Conference Blue rivals on Wednesday in Warren.

Cousino scored just eight points in the first quarter. Thanks in part to a firm pep talk by head coach Joe Kohl and some improved offensive sets, things began to fall back into place.

“It’s just getting guys in the right spot and just being patient,” Kohl said. “I mean, that’s really what it boils down to. And once they see a handful of offensive sets that are good, then, you know, hopefully they start trusting the system.”

Buckets by Nic Farr and Brandon Cade got Cousino’s offense going. The 7-0 run to start the second quarter closed the gap down to two scores, then Joe Raper’s half-court, buzzer beating bank shot 3-pointer tied the game at 25 going into halftime.

From there, it was all Cousino all the time, which included Cade scoring the first seven points of the second half as part of a 9-0 CHS run which eventually led to the Patriots going up double-digits for good.

The Ramblers had trouble keeping the same fire they started with.

“Oh, yeah, it gets deflating,” said Fraser head coach Steve Norgrove. “And then what happens is your more veteran players try to handle it themselves and take the game over. And it gets away from the team concept a little bit, and it’s not because they’re selfish. It’s not that they’re bad players. It just comes from they’re just putting their efforts in the wrong place, and we just need to stick to the plan.”Cade scored 14 of his game-high 24 in the third quarter and had 20 in the second half.

“Brandon Cade brings that energy (and) excitement,” Farr said of his backcourt mate. “He’s a leader that wants everybody to be happy no matter what the outcome is. He’s just a really great teammate.”

Kohl said that “trusting the system” for Cousino means more movement — both on ball and off — to keep the defense moving. From there, things happened thanks to their strong guard play — Farr, Cade and Kingston Hessel, to name a few.

“I tell them you’re going to score more points with the ball in your hand for a fraction a second than you are if you’re dribbling the ball around for 10 minutes,” Kohl said. “And that’s what they’re really starting to learn.”

Farr himself had 13 points, helped set up his teammates, crashed the boards and was a leader on defense.

It’s not new for the junior — he’s been a major part of the Patriots earning wins in four of their last five games, which includes a 39 point outburst against L’Anse Creuse.

“He’s the guy that we need, we need to score,” Kohl said of Farr. “He’s been here since his freshman year — this is his third year, so this year has been really big for him, just in his aggressiveness and able to get to the rim now. And now, it’s just having him create things for other guys and making us better as a team, trust and him trusting the other guys too.”

After Cade and Farr, Nessel had seven points, Raper and Noah Saunders had six and Jeremiah Saunders had four for Cousino.

The Patriots improved to 9-5 and 4-2 in Blue play. Their two slip-ups both came against Grosse Pointe North.

Fraser falls to 5-11 and 1-6 in the Blue. They’ve lost six of their last seven games.

“We have a great locker room,” Norgrove said. “We have great kids, and they’re trying to do the right things. And unfortunately, right now, we’re getting a little sloppy at times, and it’s really hurting us because teams are taking advantage of it, so we have to clean that up a bit. And you know, like I said, our guys are playing hard. The effort’s there. It’s just a matter of increasing the skill level a little bit to withstand 32 minutes of competitive basketball in our league.”

Brady Slone led Fraser with 12 points. Sam Zanon, who set the program record with 45 points in a game on Jan. 21, had 11. Chris Childs, Connor Sikorski and Logan Sabo each had six points and both Darius Smith and Sean Franklin had two.

The good news for the Ramblers is that they still have time to figure things out before the tournament, but they know that it’s time to switch gears into do-or-die mode.

“We have been talking about how we do need to start getting ready for the tournament,” Norgrove said. “That’s more of a mindset than skillset, and we’re trying to find ways and manufacture ways as a staff to get to our guys and try to get them to understand that this game’s 32 minutes and teams are going to come after us.”