Which team is apt to go further in the tournament, one led by a tremendous individual scorer or a squad featuring a balanced attack?

Friday night’s Eastern Maine Class A boys basketball semifinals may help settle the age-old argument.

Lawrence High senior guard Aaron Harris made the scorer’s case in Saturday’s quarterfinals at the Bangor Auditorium, pouring in 33 points to lead the third-seeded Bulldogs from Fairfield to a surprisingly easy 69-45 win over No. 6 Waterville.

Then No. 2 Bangor countered with the team point of view, putting four players in double-figures, including senior guard John Tennett’s 10 points in his first game back after a bout with mononucleosis, to pull out a difficult 57-48 victory over No. 7 Cony.

Bangor (16-3) and Lawrence (16-3) will meet Friday at 7:07 p.m. at the Auditorium. Bangor beat Lawrence twice during the regular season.

Wearing a flak jacket under his jersey to protect his spleen, Tennett gave Bangor a big boost by scoring eight of his points in the first half. Tennett’s slippery inside play coupled with senior forward Dean Heistand’s all-over scoring touch (14 points) staked their team to a 35-23 lead at intermission.

Having switched from a 2-3 zone to man-to-man late in the first quarter, Bangor shut off the 3-point shooting of Cony’s Travis Jacques (12 points), who had buried three bombs in the first period.

But 6-foot-5 Cony scoring sensation Ryan Goodwin kept plugging away under the glass on the way to 25 points. And some sloppy Bangor work from the foul line (17-for-33 on the game) enabled the Augusta-based Rams to claw back within striking distance.

It was 48-48 with 3:41 left in the game when Bangor center Ryan Bradford (11 points) stepped out high and made the biggest shot of the contest, a 3-pointer that needed a friendly bounce to roll in.

“I dumped it down into Nat (Clark) and he was doubled,” said Bradford, a 6-5 senior. “I yelled. He threw it out. I was wide open. I got the lucky roll.”

Bradford’s bucket started a 9-0 closing run for Bangor that featured five-of-six free throws from senior forward Chris Pickering (including three-of-four on a foul-technical foul combination with 42 seconds left that iced it).

Cony (12-7) wound up being outshot 33-9 from the foul line, a fact that didn’t sit well with Rams Coach Gary Veilleux, who saw Goodwin foul out with 42 seconds left and 6-8 center Jon Russell never get to the line.

“It seems like there’s a different standard for big guys,” said Veilleux. “I thought Russell got bumped a lot and there were no calls.”

Mark Reed finished with 14 for Bangor, despite a cold shooting day.

Saturday’s first boys game was essentially over in less than 12 minutes. That’s how long it took Lawrence’s Harris, a silky 6-2 jumpshooter, to connect on four of six 3-point attempts, score 17 points, and give his team a 26-12 lead with 4:46 still remaining in the first half.

“I wanted to come out and establish my shot,” said Harris. “I got into a rhythm right away.”

Lawrence’s swarming man-to-man defense did the rest.

Bulldogs Kelly Dyer and Keith Knight took turns hounding Panther scoring ace Daren Meader into a 6-for-22 shooting day. Waterville would shoot 28 percent on the game. Meader finished with 15 and Travis Dustin hit for 11 for the Panthers (12-7), who played Lawrence close in two regular season losses.

Conversely, Waterville would try three different men guarding Harris, who finished with six 3-pointers in 12 attempts. It didn’t matter who was on the Lawrence star.

“It wasn’t the guys guarding him,” explained Waterville Coach Ken Lindlof afterward. “We didn’t get good help on him coming off the screens.”

With Harris leading the way and point guard Tommy Reynolds adding eight points, four assists and four steals, the Bulldogs pulled steadily away. Lawrence led by 16 at the half and 21 after three quarters. The lead topped out at 26 on a pair of Dyer free throws with 4:26 to play (60-34).

Bulldogs 69, Panthers 45

Lawrence boys Waterville

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

Dyer 3 1 5 4 6 Meader 22 6 4 2 15

Harris 17 9 11 9 33 Hildreth 4 2 2 1 5

Reynolds 4 3 4 2 8 C. Scott 2 1 0 0 2

Cole 7 2 4 3 7 Dustin 10 4 5 3 11

Richards 7 1 0 0 2 B. Scott 6 1 0 0 2

Goggin 2 1 6 6 8 Achorn 9 1 4 3 5

Knight 3 2 0 0 5 Hamel 1 0 6 3 3

Patterson 0 0 2 0 0 Hanley 1 1 2 0 2

Witham 0 0 0 0 0 Henyan 1 0 0 0 0

Harrison 1 0 0 0 0 Bowen 1 0 0 0 0

Nowlin 0 0 0 0 0 Nadeau 0 0 0 0 0

Hiltz 0 0 0 0 0 Gordon 0 0 0 0 0

Winship 0 0 0 0 0

Kelly 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 44 19 32 24 69 Totals 57 16 23 12 45

Lawrence 17 31 50 69

Waterville 8 15 29 45

3-pt. goals: Lawrence (7-18), Harris 6-12, Knight 1-2, Cole 0-4; Waterville (1-17), Meader 1-10, Achorn 0-5, Hildreth 0-1, Scott 0-1

Bangor Rams 57, Cony 48

Bangor boys Cony

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

Reed 12 4 14 6 14 Veilleux 5 0 0 0 0

Tennett 10 5 1 0 10 Pomerleau 2 1 0 0 2

Bradford 5 4 4 2 11 Goodwin 18 11 7 3 25

Heistand 9 5 5 3 14 Stewart 3 0 1 0 0

Pickering 3 1 6 5 7 Jacques 9 4 0 0 12

Clark 2 0 2 1 1 Russell 5 3 0 0 7

Keeling 0 0 1 0 0 Eastman 1 1 1 0 2

Newman 0 0 0 0 0 Chase 1 0 0 0 0

Jarvis 0 0 0 0 0 Gasink 1 0 0 0 0

Murray 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 41 19 33 17 57 Totals 45 20 9 3 48

Bangor 17 35 44 57

Cony 18 23 40 48

3-pt. goals: Bangor (2-2), Bradford 1-1, Heistand 1-1; Cony (5-13), Jacques 4-7, Veilleux 0-4, Russell 1-1, Chase 0-1