GRANBY - Behind Tyler Verville's fast start the Belchertown boys basketball team raced out of the gate and never relinquished the lead, defeating Granby 68-59 Monday.

Verville finished with a career-high 19 points, all in the first half. Belchertown scored 28 to take a seven-point first-quarter lead.

"I came out and scored like the first 10 points of the game, and I think that gave us the adrenaline to get going," Verville said.

The victory put Belchertown back in the race for the league title. The Orioles (13-4, 3-2 Bi-County North) are tied with Granby (11-6, 3-2), one game behind Palmer (11-5, 4-1). The Orioles host Palmer at 7 p.m. Monday. Granby plays at Palmer on Feb. 16.

"Tyler does a very good job distributing the ball, but today he felt like he needed to have his offensive game on," Belchertown coach Claude Humphrey said.

The Orioles went into the break with a 43-35 lead.

"Tonight it came down to the first half, and they shot 18 of 30 in the first half," Granby coach Tim Sheehan said. "You have to give them a lot of credit for that."

Although Granby beat the Orioles 63-58 in the teams' previous game, it didn't give the Rams enough momentum Monday night.

"I thought we would come out and be ready to play with a great opportunity to try and distance ourselves from (other teams) for the league title," Sheehan said. "There is no confidence, we knew we stole one the first time around."

The Rams couldn't get their fast-paced offense going in the second half.

"We slowed the pace down in the second half focusing on the defensive end by contesting jump shots, and making sure we ran them off the 3-point line," Humphrey said.

Zach Parsons led Belchertown with 27 points. He had been averaging 18.1 points per game heading into Monday night's contest.

"That is the norm from Zach," Humphrey said. "He rebounds and scores for us."

Verville and Parsons had not played together much before this season, but both are making each other better and igniting the Orioles.

"This was probably the best game we have ever played together," Parsons said. "He found me a lot. He hit big shots. I hit some shots and it was big for our team. We feed off that."

Aaron Gaj and Corey Baker led Granby with 20 points apiece. Gaj's buzzer-beater to finish off the third quarter pulled the Rams within four points at 56-52. He took it to the basket and floated it from the free-throw line as time expired.

But Granby couldn't get closer as Belchertown outscored the Rams 12-7 in the fourth.