Things looked pretty good for Presque Isle when the Wildcats went into the locker room trailing defending Eastern Maine Class A basketball champion Bangor by four points.

Presque Isle Coach Tim Prescott was glad to be in that position, but he knew that Bangor was capable of a much better defensive effort.

In the Bangor locker room, Coach Roger Reed pointed out the very same thing to his Rams. The hosts returned to the Red Barry Gym floor with renewed intensity, holding the Wildcats to 15 second-half points en route to a 65-45 Big East Conference victory Saturday.

Bangor, 4-0, stepped up its man-to-man defense in a big way, denying penetration and keeping Presque Isle off the offensive boards, two areas which the Wildcats had utilized in the first half.

The Rams opened the third quarter with an 8-2 spurt to push their lead to 10, then put the game away with an 11-0 run in the fourth.

“I told them there’s no excuse for us not playing good defense,” Reed said of his halftime talk. “I said, `you’re looking at a 60-point game. You’ve given up 30 points. If you want to win championships, you’ve got to play defense.’ They didn’t give up any easy shots the second half.”

The Wildcats, now 4-2, went 6-for-30 from the floor (20 percent) in the second half in the face of Bangor’s less generous defense.

Leading 34-30 at the break, Bangor wasted no time in changing the tone of the contest in the first two minutes of the third quarter. Mark Reed opened the rally with a baseline move and Ryan Bradford hit a jumper off an offensive rebound to make it 38-30.

Sam Ricker answered for PI with a 14-foot jumper, but Chris Pickering made a short jump-hook from the paint and Reed added two free throws to make it 42-32 with 5:50 to play in the third.

The Wildcats shaved the deficit to six on a Tate McPherson rebound basket and John Hersey’s put-back, but the hosts responded with six unanswered points.

“I thought we did a good job the second half,” said Bangor’s Nat Clark. “We came out, we played real tight and I think we only gave them 15 points.”

Bangor got its transition game rolling in the final period, with sophomore center Clark playing a key role inside. Clark made three of four from the line to make it 53-41, then Pickering scored a fast-break layup off a Reed feed.

Clark then sandwiched a pair of driving layups around Reed’s steal-layup combo to make it a 20-point ballgame.

“We just turned it up a notch and, luckily, we were able to pull it out,” Pickering said. “We haven’t played for a week and a half. I don’t know if it was a factor or not, but we just knew we had to pick it up defensively.”

Presque Isle led during much of the first half, getting the ball inside and hitting the boards hard while outrebounding the Rams 23-12. McPherson scored 10 of PI’s first 11 points in the second quarter, scoring from underneath off a lob pass from Ricker to give the Wildcats a 22-20 lead.

Bradford nailed three 3-pointers in the last 3:36 of the half and Tennett hit one with a second left in the half to help Bangor retake the lead for good.

Reed paced Bangor with 17 points, six rebounds, four steals and three assists. Bradford connected on six of eight from the field, including three 3-pointers, on his way to 15 points. He added eight rebounds and three steals.

Tennett contributed eight point and five assists, while Clark had seven points and Pickering six for the Rams, who finished with a 42-37 rebounding edge. Bangor also made 15 of 19 from the foul line.

Sophomore McPherson hit seven of 12 en route to 17 points for the ‘Cats. Rob Wasson added eight points and eight rebounds. Hersey snatched a game-high 10 rebounds.

Rams 65, Wildcats 45

Bangor boys Presque Isle

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

Reed 18 5 7 7 17 McPherson 12 7 4 3 17

Bradford 8 6 0 0 15 Wasson 8 3 2 2 8

Tennett 7 2 4 3 8 Bishop 8 2 0 0 6

Clark 3 2 4 3 7 Hersey 9 2 2 1 5

Pickering 4 2 2 2 6 Kenney 5 1 2 1 3

Heistand 6 2 0 0 5 Ricker 8 1 2 1 3

Murray 3 1 0 0 3 Benjamin 1 1 0 0 2

Estey 4 1 0 0 2 Plummer 0 0 2 1 1

Jarvis 2 1 1 0 2 McLellan 4 0 0 0 0

Keeling 1 0 1 0 0 Casavant 1 0 0 0 0

Brown 1 0 0 0 0 DeMerchant 0 0 0 0 0

Parke 0 0 0 0 0 Keenan 1 0 0 0 0

Totals 57 22 19 15 65 Totals 57 17 14 9 45

Bangor 9 34 50 65

Presque Isle 11 30 39 45

Preliminary: Bangor JVs 60, Presque Isle JVs 40

3-pt. goals: Bangor (6-14): Bradford 3-4, Tennett 1-2, Murray 1-3, Heistand 1-4, Brown 0-1; PI (2-10): Bishop 2-7, Hersey 0-1, McLellan 0-2