Scott Beverage knows all about Lawrence High School’s basketball tradition. Friday night, the senior guard displayed the kind of relentless, purposeful play that has helped carry the Bulldogs to back-to-back Eastern Maine Class A titles.

Beverage hit two momentum-generating 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and came up with key steal in overtime to help Lawrence of Fairfield pull out a 55-51 victory over Waterville at the Bangor Auditorium.

Coach Mike McGee’s 18-2 Bulldogs advance to Saturday’s 8:45 p.m. regional championship game against No. 2 Old Town, an 84-50 winner over Bangor.

Beverage’s clutch play helped Lawrence escape the grasp of Ken Lindlof’s hungry Panthers, who never trailed until overtime. Waterville, 12-8, forced the Bulldogs out of their preferred offense with outstanding man-to-man interior defense while controlling the game.

With Lawrence trailing 47-44 with 1:30 to play, Beverage buried his second 3-pointer of the quarter to tie the game. Jason Jabar, Waterville’s talented junior forward, answered with a baseline move, but Beverage fed Lenny Cole for an 8-footer from the paint with 52 seconds left.

Lawrence sophomore Aaron Harris helped force the OT with a tap-away steal with six seconds left. Cole missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer in regulation.

Beverage, who had picked up his fourth foul at 3:18 of the fourth, opened the overtime period by making a tap-away steal that led to Scott Walker’s 6-footer from the baseline at the 2:09 mark. After a Jabar miss, Mike Harris hit two free throws to make it 53-49 with 56 seconds left.

Beverage followed by rebounding a missed foul shot and hit two more from the line to ice it.

“It’s a combination of both tournament experience and the Lawrence part of it,” Beverage said. “We have a lot of pride and we don’t like to lose. We always battle back.”

Despite playing with four fouls, Beverage didn’t let up.

“With our depth, you have to go all-out all the time,” Beverage said. “You’ve got to play as hard as you can. Our defense is centered around all five people working together, so you’ve always got to work hard.”

The Panthers had chances to build on their eight-point lead in the fourth, but missed 6-of-8 from the foul line during a span of four minutes. And, with Lawrence pressuring the ball full-court in the late going, Waterville was not able to set up as easily in its half-court offense.

“Defensively, when we started picking them up fullcourt I think we tired them out,” McGee said. “We got them out of their halfcourt offense and I thought that was the key because Ken Lindlof is one of the finest teachers of half-court offense in the game.”

Cole spearheaded the Lawrence offense with a game-high 23 points and also snatched 12 rebounds. The ‘Dogs backed up Cole’s effort with a balanced attack as Beverage (4 assists, 2 steals) netted 9 points, Walker and Aaron Harris 8 each and Mike Harris 7 points, 3 assists.

Waterville was led by Jabar, who tossed in 16 points and pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds. Jason Caron scored 16 points and had 7 boards. The Panthers outrebounded the Bulldogs 38-32.

Waterville, which lost two regular-season games to Lawrence, appeared headed for an upset after two free throws each by Jabar and Jason Caron made it 39-31 with 7:38 remaining. But, senior guard Mike Harris and Beverage stepped up the outside game to get the ‘Dogs untracked.

Beverage’s 3-pointer at 6:07 cut the deficit to 40-38 and seemed to light a fire under the Bulldogs, who seized the momentum and forced the overtime.

Bulldogs 55, Panthers 51 (OT)

Lawrence Waterville

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

Winship 1 0 0 0 0 L. Meader 3 0 2 2 2

A. Harris 7 2 5 4 8 Kline 4 2 0 0 4

Beverage 11 2 5 3 9 Hanson 7 2 2 0 4

Walker 4 2 8 4 8 Grondin 0 0 4 3 3

M. Harris 3 2 4 3 7 Brody 1 0 0 0 0

Ward 1 0 0 0 0 Jabar 13 5 17 6 16

L. Cole 20 9 10 5 23 Caron 12 7 2 2 16

B. Cole 1 0 0 0 0 MacDonald 1 1 0 0 2

York 0 0 0 0 0 Hutchinson 8 2 0 0 4

Totals 48 17 32 19 55 Totals 49 19 27 13 51

Lawrence 11 20 31 49 55

Waterville 15 26 35 49 51

3-pt. goals: Lawrence (2-14): Beverage 2-9, L. Cole 0-3, A. Harris 0-2; Waterville (0-4): L. Meader 0-2, Hanson 0-2