Calais ended John Bapst’s reign over Maine Class C basketball Thursday, outmuscling the Crusaders with its physical style in earning a 66-56 Eastern Maine semifinal victory at the Bangor Auditorium.

Coach Arnie Clark’s 18-2 Blue Devils used their frontcourt size and aggressive guard play to wear down Bapst of Bangor. Calais fended off a late rally by the Crusaders, using its hard-driving style to put Bapst away in the final two minutes.

Calais advances to Saturday’s 8:45 p.m. regional championship game against the winner of Thursday night’s Sumner-Washington Academy clash. Bob Cimbollek’s Crusaders, who had won back-to-back state crowns, wound up 17-3.

“I think basically the key to stopping John Bapst is denying the shuffle cuts and putting pressure on the passers,” Coach Clark said. “That’s what we tried to do.

“We felt we could outrebound them because we thought we were stronger than them. We went right at them early, but I think we got a little carried away and aggressive on the boards.”

The Devils began to take the upper hand in the third quarter. Paced by the inside play of Brad McPhee and the penetrating moves of Derek Clark, Calais outscored the Crusaders 10-2 to build up a 39-31 lead after three periods.

Calais even took a page out of Bapst’s playbook, running a four-corner offense to score six unanswered points over the last 1:42 of the third. McPhee sandwiched four free throws around a driving layup by Clark to give Calais an eight-point lead.

“We’ve been doing that (four corners) a lot in practice, waiting for the situation where we could do that,” said junior Matt Cassidy. “It finally paid off.”

The Crusaders were unable to stop the Devils from getting the ball inside and couldn’t keep Calais off the offensive boards. Calais went back to its aggressive style, building its lead to 13 points (51-38) with a 12-4 fourth-quarter run, keyed by 6 close-range points by Noah Tapley.

The Crusaders applied some defensive pressure with a quicker lineup and fought back into contention. Bapst pounded the ball inside to senior forward Rod Buswell, who scored 8 points to fuel a 13-2 spurt that cut the deficit to 53-51 with 2:30 left.

In fact, Bapst had the ball and a chance to tie, but Mark Baxter’s three-point runner missed. Jeff Hinton answered with an 8-footer from the lane at 2:20 and, after another Bapst miss, Clark hit two foul shots to make it 57-51.

Clark then came up with a big steal which led to a Cassidy free throw, and David Pike rebounded the missed second try to pave the way for Clark’s driving layup that iced it with 1:25 to go.

Clark, a 6-2 senior, sparked the Devils with 21 points, 6 steals, and 4 assists. Cassidy netted 21 points, while McPhee provided 9 points and 11 rebounds and Tapley 8 points.

Buswell was unstoppable while tossing in a game-high 24 points for Bapst. He also grabbed 10 rebounds. Mike Miragliuolo added 8 points and 4 assists, Greg Nichols 7 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots, and John Cornett 7 points and 4 assists.

Calais outrebounded the Crusaders 40-30, including 25 on the offensive end.

Blue Devils 66, Crusaders 56

Calais boys John Bapst

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

Doten 5 0 0 0 0 Miragliuolo 10 3 2 1 8

Hinton 8 2 1 0 4 Wright 1 1 0 0 3

McLellan 2 0 0 0 0 Cornett 5 2 3 3 7

Morrison 0 0 0 0 0 Buswell 15 11 6 2 24

McPhee 7 2 6 5 9 Mullins 0 0 0 0 0

Clark 12 8 7 5 21 C. Haas 2 1 1 1 3

Cassidy 22 7 12 7 21 Baxter 7 2 0 0 4

Tapley 4 2 4 4 8 Nichols 9 0 8 7 7

Waycott 0 0 2 1 1 Rassi 0 0 0 0 0

Pike 4 1 2 0 2 Webster 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 64 22 34 22 66 Totals 49 20 20 14 56

Calais 11 22 39 66

John Bapst 9 23 31 56

3-pt. goals: Calais (0-6): Clark 0-1, Cassidy 0-5; John Bapst (2-10): Miragliuolo 1-5, Wright 1-1, Cornett 0-2, Baxter 0-1, Nichols 0-1