Arsenault lifts Indians; Lawrence gets by Brewer

loading...

Coming Friday night to the Bangor Auditorium, an Eastern Maine Class A basketball tournament production:

Old Town’s Ice Man meets the Bulldogs.

“Ice” is what his teammates call Old Town High forward Chris Arsenault, a 6-foot senior who proved the nickname fits in Saturday’s quarterfinal by hitting 11 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter to enable the third-seeded Indians to hold off No. 6 Cony of Augusta 79-71.

And the Bulldogs, as all regional big-school fans know, can only refer to the boys of Lawrence High in Fairfield, that annual tourney participant which led the decade of the 1980s with three EM titles. They’re back, seeded second, and looking as effective as ever judging by their 55-50 quarterfinal win over No. 7 Brewer.

Showtime for Friday’s semifinal clash begins at 7:05 p.m.

If Lawrence is going to advance to another EM final, it’s going to have to do a better job stopping Old Town’s Arsenault than Cony did in the morning game. Arsenault scored 36 points and handed out seven assists in a dominant effort as the Tribe improved to 15-4.

“Chris has been dynamite all year, he’s carried us,” was the postgame assessment of Old Town coach Marty Clark. “There’s only been one fourth quarter we’ve lost all year. That’s because when we get in trouble, we get Chris the ball.”

With Arsenault consistently burning Cony’s man-to-man defense with perimeter jumpers and 6-5 Old Town center Casey Costigan powering in 17 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in the paint, the Indians were able to run up as much as a 22-point lead midway through the third quarter (51-29). It didn’t appear any fourth-quarter heroics would be necessary.

But with 12 minutes to play the Tribe tried to sit on its lead. They quit looking to the basket and contented themselves with passing the ball to run off the clock.

“It was my fault,” Clark said. “It made us tentative.”

Cony’s explosive guard-center tandem of 5-9 senior Scott Pushard (26 points) and 6-5 senior Chris Russell (24 points, 13 rebounds) came to life. In less than 10 minutes the Rams reeled off scoring runs of 8-2, 7-0, and 17-6 against Old Town’s 1-2-2 zone to close within 69-61 with 2:42 remaining.

At that juncture, Arsenault drew a foul and hit both ends of the 1-and-1 to up the Indian lead to 10 again.

But Cony had momentum. A Russell conventional 3-point play, an Old Town turnover, and another Russell inside bucket pulled the Rams within 71-66. And a missed front end by Old Town’s Chad Blake translated into a layup for Cony’s Tom Ziebart. Now it was a 71-68 game with a minute left.

Clark called a timeout and told his charges to “take the open shot if it’s there.” Blake did just that, driving the left baseline for a layup, igniting a closing 8-3 run for the Indians that featured four more Arsenault free throws.

In the afternoon game, Lawrence got 12 points and 7 rebounds from 6-6 junior Lenny Cole and 10 points and 12 rebounds from 6-3 senior forward Chris Massey to up its record to 14-5. Bulldog guard Scott Beverage added 10 more points to balance the attack.

Brewer (12-7) could counter only with 13 points and 9 rebounds from 6-2 senior swingman Darren Clough.

The game was decided in the third period, when a combination of good Lawrence man-to-man defense and cold Brewer shooting (2-for-13) resulted in the Bulldogs outscoring the Witches 13-7 to take a 42-34 lead.

Brewer made a last-gasp run, closing to within 46-44 with 4:13 to play on a pair of Dan O’Sullivan free throws. The Witches simply couldn’t get even.

Lawrence answered with a 6-0 burst on a 10-foot jumper by Massey and a pair of free throws and an inside bucket by 6-4 junior Scott Walker, upping the lead to 52-44 and ending the suspense with 2:10 to play.

Bulldogs 55, Witches 50

Lawrence boys Brewer

Name AG G AF F TP Name AG G AF F TP

Cole 11 5 5 2 13 O’Sullivan

9 2 2 2 6

Harris 3 3 5 3 9 Clough

14 6 3 1 13

Denis 5 2 0 0 5 Wood

7 3 0 0 6

Jarosz 2 0 0 0 0 M. Smith

10 3 2 2 8

Massey 10 5 2 0 10 Lord

8 3 4 2 8

Beverage 5 3 3 3 10 T. Smith

2 1 0 0 2

Walker 4 3 5 3 9 Whitmore

2 1 0 0 2

White 4

2 2 1 5

Totals 40 21 20 11 55 Totals 56 21 13

8 50

Brewer 14 27 34 50

Lawrence 11 29 42 55

3-pt. goals: Lawrence (2-10), Denis 1-4, Beverage 1-3, Cole 0-2, Jarosz 0-1; Brewer (0-6), Clough 0-2, O’Sullivan 0-1, Wood 0-1, M. Smith 0-1, White 0-1

Indians 79, Rams 71

Old Town boys Cony

Name AG G AF F TP Name AG G AF F TP

Veilleux 7 3 5 4 10 Pushard

24 9 7 3 26

Smart 2 1 1 0 2 Hayes

1 0 1 0 0

Costigan 12 8 3 1 17 Russell

13 10 7 4 24

Arsenault 18 10 16 13 36 Lacasse 6 2 3 2 7

Blake 5 3 1 0 7 Trafton

5 3 2 1 7

L’Heureux 4 2 2 1 5 Nickerson

2 0 0 0 0

Randall 1 1 2 0 2 Ziebart

4 1 2 2 4

Caron 1

1 1 0 3

Lavallee 0 0 0 0 0

Adams

0 0 0 0 0

Totals 50 28 30 19 79q Totals 56 26 22

12 71

Cony 18 27 44 71

Old Town 23 41 59 79

3-pt. goals: Old Town (4-7), Arsenault 3-5, Blake 1-2; Cony (7-22), Pushard 5-16, Lacasse 1-3, Caron 1-1, Ziebart 0-1, Nickerson 0-1