BANGOR – Life at the top isn’t supposed to be easy, but the Mount Desert Island Trojans didn’t expect it would be this difficult.

The top-seeded Trojans were given all they could handle before rallying late for an Eastern Maine Class B quarterfinal victory at the Bangor Auditorium Saturday night.

Clutch foul shooting and two defensive stands down the stretch helped MDI pull out a 66-63 victory over No. 8 Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield.

In the other evening game, No. 4 John Bapst of Bangor outlasted No. 5 Camden-Rockport 43-37. The 15-4 Crusaders will take on 16-3 MDI in an 8:35 p.m. Wednesday semifinal.

In the late game, it was starting to look like the Cinderella Huskies, who became the tourney’s eighth seed only after winning a preliminary playoff game on the road, would be able to pull off a major upset with time to spare before the clock struck midnight.

After MDI stormed out to an 11-2 lead, MCI coach Duffy McAllister called a timeout to settle his boys down. The result was an 11-0 run that put MCI up 13-11 and made the Huskies believe they could go mano-a-mano with the Trojans.

Make that man-to-man since that’s the only defense either team played in the 32-minute suspense-a-thon. Only seven turnovers were committed and neither team led by more than three in the second half, which featured 10 lead changes.

“We just hung on. We survived. How’s my hair look?” asked a visibly relieved Wilton Jones, MDI’s coach. “I just can’t say enough about MCI. They’re tough and it’s too bad they had to lose.”

After MCI re-established its biggest lead of the game, 60-57 with 3:13 left to play, MDI’s Aaron Brown (14 points, 10 rebounds) went to work inside.

Brown scored on a drive through the lane before MCI’s Hiro Hirano hit the front end of a 1-and-1 to make it 61-59 MCI.

With 2:12 to play, Brown found Marc Corliss (23 points, 16 rebounds, four assists) in the paint and Corliss scored, drawing MCI center Ben Cummings’ fifth foul. Corliss hit the foul shot, putting MDI up 62-61.

MCI’s Jeff Giallombardo (16 points) drove the lane, scored, and drew a foul 24 seconds later, but missed the free throw.

MCI missed a chance to go up 65-62 when Trevor Lykens missed two foul shots with 1:47 left. After that, it was all MDI.

Fifteen seconds later, Corliss found Ben Ketchen in the low post and MDI was up 64-63. With 43 seconds left, Brown hit two foul shots to put MDI up by three.

Two perimeter shots by MCI missed the mark and MDI used a four-corner offense to run the last 12 seconds off the clock.

“I’ll tell you, the 1-8 game is the scariest game of all. And it was pretty scary tonight,” said Corliss.

In the early game, John Bapst and 11-8 Camden-Rockport put on defensive clinics, making almost no shot an easy one.

Bapst switched from 2-3 zone to man-to-man to 1-3-1 zone. It was the last that did the trick.

“The 1-3-1 worked best because it extended our defense out and let us put pressure on their ballhandlers,” said Geoff Halber, who hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to ice the game with 12 seconds left.

Meanwhile, the Windjammers countered with a constant mix of zone and man that kept the Crusaders confused and guessing.

After Bapst took a 39-35 lead with 6:15 left to play in the game, the teams simply shut each other down offensively over a scoreless, four-minute span.

In the end of a game where the largest lead was six points, it came down to foul shots and rebounds and C-R didn’t get many of either.

After C-R’s Clint Beveridge drove to the hoop and scored to make it 39-37 Bapst with 2:04 left, the teams traded fruitless shots.

With 48 seconds left, Bapst coach Bob Cimbollek called timeout.

“I told them don’t foul, take the threes away, and trade the two for the clock,” he said.

The Crusaders responded by grabbing every rebound, going 4-for-5 from the line and holding C-R scoreless. Meanwhile, the ‘Jammers’ outside shooting went cold and the last four shots bounced off the rim.

Class B boys

Trojans 66, Huskies 63

MCI boys (10-10) MDI (16-3)

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

Giallombrdo 6 15 4 5 16 Pinkham 0 2 0 0 0

Hirano 2 5 1 3 5 McFarland 4 7 0 0 8

Plamondon 3 4 0 0 7 M.Ketchen 5 11 2 2 13

Lykens 2 4 0 2 5 Corliss 7 17 9 14 23

Collins 5 11 0 1 11 Brown 6 12 2 2 14

Walker 1 3 0 0 3 B.Ketchen 3 7 2 6 8

Fitts 6 12 0 0 12 Burns 0 3 0 0 0

Estes 0 1 0 0 0

Cummings 2 3 0 0 4

Totals 27 58 5 11 63 Totals 25 59 15 24 66

Maine Central Institute 15 29 48 63

Mount Desert Island 17 34 51 66

3-pt. goals: MCI (4-9): Hirano 0-1, Plamondon 1-1, Lykens 1-3, Collins 1-2, Walker 1-2; MDI (1-5): Burns 0-1, M.Ketchen 1-2, Brown 0-2

Crusaders 43, Windjammers 37

Camden-Rockpt.(11-8) John Bapst boys (15-4)

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

Gushee 0 0 0 0 0 Thomas 2 6 0 1 4

Callanan 6 10 0 2 12 Buswell 6 14 1 2 13

J.Masin-Ptrs 2 5 1 1 5 Ward 0 1 2 2 2

Beveridge 3 7 1 2 7 Halber 1 2 2 4 4

Butler 0 1 0 0 0 Zmjts-Brown 0 0 0 0 0

P.Masin-Ptrs 4 13 3 3 11 Young 1 5 0 0 2

J.Marden 0 1 0 0 0 Picard 7 9 4 4 18

Luce 1 3 0 2 2

Totals 16 40 5 10 37 Totals 17 37 9 13 43

Camden-Rockport 12 21 31 37

John Bapst 11 18 35 43

3-pt. goals: Camden-Rockport (0-7): J.Masin-Peters 0-1, Beveridge 0-1, Butler 0-1, P.Masin-Peters 0-4; John Bapst (0-0)