BANGOR – The moment frustrated Narraguagus basketball fans had been waiting 22 years for finally came Saturday night.
The boys from Harrington ended seven straight years of postseason heartbreak with a 65-54 victory over Katahdin of Sherman Station at the Bangor Auditorium.
The win gave the 16-3 Knights the school’s first Eastern Maine Class C basketball championship in more than two decades.
It also set up a state championship game with West champ Falmouth, which downed Hall-Dale 71-48 Saturday. The fellow regional No. 2 seeds will play Friday at 9 p.m. at the Bangor Auditorium.
“I don’t think anybody was really thinking about ‘Guagus. They were like, `Oh, they’re probably gone by the second round,”‘ said Knights sixth man Jason Pinkham.
That kind of pessimism was understandable, given the Knights’ recent tourney history.
This was the eighth straight year in postseason play for ‘Guagus, but the closest it’s come in that span to a title was 1995, when the top-ranked Knights were upset by Hodgdon in the East championship game.
Knights fans have suffered through that loss, three in the semifinals, and two more in the quarterfinals the last seven years. Upsets and overtime losses accounted for four of those defeats.
“I’m so proud of these guys,” said ‘Guagus coach Vinnie MacLean. “But I can’t stand up here and take all the credit because there’s another man who worked just as hard for five years with these kids, and that’s Mworked just as hard for five years with these kids, and that’s Michael Kelley. I just got a lucky break when he resigned.”
Kelley resigned last year and traded jobs with MacLean, who was JV boys coach at Jonesport-Beals, so Kelley could be closer to his children, who attend the Class D school.
Saturday’s win brought back a familiar feeling for MacLean.
“This is the second time for me, but this feels better than it did 14 years ago because I can see the looks on these kids’ faces,” he said.
MacLean was a starting guard on Jonesport-Beals’ 1983 state championship team.
The Knights used an 11-0 run that began late in the first quarter to take their first lead and extend it to 22-16 30 seconds into the second. Although Katahdin cut ‘Guagus’ lead to one and three points late in the third quarter, the Knights never trailed again.
The fifth-seeded Cougars, who finished 15-5, managed to dictate the game’s tempo, but ‘Guagus proved it could run and jump as easily as play a halfcourt offense.
“We wanted to get them going up and down the floor and, hopefully, create some turnovers. We like to play that brand, but they showed they can play it, too. That’s a tough club,” said Katahdin coach Bill McAvoy.
Katahdin tried to shut down ‘Guagus stars Erik Benge and Chad Dorr.
The gamble was marginally successful as Dorr had 10 rebounds and a game-high 22 points. Benge was held to seven points, but fellow guard Adam Meyer took up the slack with 15.
“They key on Erik or Chad, but they don’t key on me. No one really has all year,” said Meyer.
Forward Nick Lyford (11 points, 15 rebounds, five assists) and center Jared Look (nine points) also stepped up.
“They have five strong ballplayers. We were hoping the other three would be off, but they weren’t,” said McAvoy.
The rotation of Meyer, Benge, and Pinkham limited Katahdin’s deadly backcourt duo of Willie Sleeper and Nick McNally to 27 points.
Sleeper had 21 of them on 30 percent shooting from the field.
“Sleeper got his points, but we stuck tight on him and made him earn them,” said Benge.
Cougars center Shawn Cyr was a force inside with 14 boards (10 defensive) and five blocks.
Knights 65, Cougars 54
Katahdin boys (15-5) Narraguagus (16-3)
Name G AG F AF TP Name G AG F AF TP
Mooney 0 1 1 2 1 Fraser 0 0 0 0 0
J.McNally 0 1 0 0 0 Benge 2 7 3 6 7
Stubbs 4 7 0 0 8 Farren 0 0 0 0 0
N.McNally 2 11 2 2 6 Pinkham 0 2 1 2 1
Marston 3 4 0 0 6 Meyer 6 19 1 1 15
Brawn 0 2 4 8 4 Look 1 7 7 9 9
Robinson 0 0 0 0 0 Tatangelo 0 0 0 0 0
Sleeper 7 23 2 2 21 C.Worcester 0 0 0 0 0
Schmidt 0 6 0 0 0 Lyford 5 13 1 2 11
Coyle 0 0 0 0 0 Dorr 8 11 6 8 22
Carver 0 0 0 0 0 M.Worcester 0 0 0 0 0
Rush 0 0 0 0 0
Cyr 3 8 2 5 8
Totals 19 63 11 19 54 Totals 22 59 19 28 65
Katahdin 16 30 44 54
Narraguagus 18 35 51 65
3-pt. goals: Katahdin (5-24): Sleeper 5-18, Mooney 0-1, J. McNally 0-1, N. McNally 0-1, Brawn 0-1, Schmidt 0-2; Narraguagus (2-8): Meyer 2-4, Benge 0-1, Dorr 0-1, Pinkham 0-2
Comments
comments for this post are closed