All good things must come to an end, and unfortunately it did on Friday night in Duxbury when the Hingham Harbormen avenged a season-opening loss to the Dragons and ended their host’s 15-game winning streak with a 77-76 OT win.

To say that Hingham earned every bit of their win would be an understatement. However, when your opponent visits the free throw line 41 times and you only get eight attempts yourself, it’s an uphill climb to make up the difference.

Despite the lopsided numbers, the Dragons had plenty of opportunities to win the game, but shot themselves in the foot on many occasions with poor defense, a lack of rebounding, and turnovers at crucial points in the game.

“I thought our defense was horrible in the first half,” said Duxbury Coach Gordon Cushing. “We hadn’t given anyone 37 points all year in the first half and we just let them drive down the key. Then at the end of the game you can count five bad plays where we didn’t take care of the basketball.”

It was obvious that both teams were up for the game, as it was tied at 4-4 in the first minute of play with Hingham’s KC Murphy controlling the boards down low and Duxbury’s Mark Brust hitting from outside.

Hingham’s CJ Taylor was also proving to be a handful for the Duxbury defense, as he hit for five straight points for a 9-6 lead, forcing Cushing to insert 6’7” Aaron Kramer, who made an impact underneath by tying the game at 13-13 with less than three minutes left in the quarter.

Once Sam Davidson put the Dragons up 15-13, the Harbormen responded with a 7-0 run and ended the first quarter with a 20-15 lead.

Hingham’s Kevin Lally continued to drive the lane in the second quarter, penetrating to the basket or dishing off to Murphy underneath for his team’s biggest lead of the night at 33-25 with 3:24 left in the half.

An 8-4 run highlighted by a pair of threes from Davidson and Brian Grossman closed the first half with Duxbury trailing 37-33.

The Hingham lead remained steady at 43-39 less than three minutes into the quarter, but a three-point play by Kramer and a bomb from outside the arc by Mike Casal had the Dragons ahead 45-43 with 4:35 on the clock.

A 10-4 Hingham run put the Harbormen up 53-49, only to have Brust bury a three-pointer with 42 seconds to go to create a barnburner for the final eight minutes.

Fouls were piling up on Duxbury’s side of the score sheet, as Hingham built a 61-57 lead with 4:31 to go in the game on a Murphy free throw that forced Grossman out of the game with his fifth foul.

The chess game began in the final four minutes, as both coaches strategized during timeouts. A free throw from Kramer, and baskets by Ian Whitney and Brust had Hingham’s lead down to 65-64 with 1:14 to go and the Dragons in possession.

Cushing called a timeout with :50.7 left to call a play, but a sloppy pass was picked off by Taylor with :39 to go that killed a golden opportunity and sent the junior to the line, where he missed both free throws.

Brust was fouled at the other end and made a pair of freebies to take the lead at 66-65, only to have Lally hit one of two from the free throw line that tied the game at 66-66 with 28 seconds remaining.

It looked like Duxbury was in perfect position to take home the win when they put the ball in the hands of Brust with 17 seconds remaining in the game. But the senior All-Star was forced to the sidelines where he was trapped and stripped of the ball before tying it up with the possession arrow in favor of Hingham.

A Taylor shot from the corner was short as the buzzer sounded, sending the game in overtime.

The lead went back and forth during OT with a Casal three-pointer and a Brust basket taking brief leads before Davidson fouled out with 1:42 to go giving Brett Caneppa a pair of free throws that put the visitors ahead for good.

Trailing 74-73, the Dragons turned the ball over with 1:25 on the clock, giving way to another Taylor basket and a 76-73 lead.

A hustle play by Hingham earned possession with :18 left, eventually sending Mike Perry to the line where he missed the first and buried the second for the game-clincher.

“Those mistakes at the end of the game really get magnified,” said a disappointed Cushing. “You make them in the first half and forget about them, but in the end when it comes down to four or five possessions you’ve got to do a better job. We didn’t even get a shot in regulation when we had a chance to win it. We turned the ball over two or three times and we fouled when we shouldn’t and put them at the line. We’ve got to play better than that and we’ll learn from it.”

Leading the way for Duxbury was Brust with 31 points, while Kramer (14) and Grossman (12) also hit for double figures.

The Dragons (15-1) have another big game on Friday night when they travel to Scituate to take on the Sailors, who lost to Duxbury, 61-60, in the season’s second game.