Unbeaten Westbrook grabs role as underdog> Blue Blazes face Bangor for state title Saturday

After cruising through a 21-0 Western Maine Class A schoolboy basketball season, Westbrook is trying to cast itself into an underdog role.

“In this game here, it makes it tough, because in Eastern Maine, Bangor has such great tradition,” Westbrook coach Mark Karter said. “It will be nice to be an underdog for a while.”

Eastern Maine champion Bangor will make its fourth appearance in five years in the Class A state championship game at the Cumberland County Civic Center at 9 p.m. Saturday.

Westbrook has rarely left a state game without the gold ball trophy, winning six titles in eight appearances.

Casting his team as a mirror image of the Rams, Karter brings a team laden with eight seniors who will attempt to bring home the Blue Blazes’ first state title since 1984.

Senior Geoff Sawyer, the only player who had played a role in Westbrook’s 1994 state runner-up run, will lead the Blue Blazes’ frontcourt.

Averaging 18 points and 14 rebounds per game, the 6-foot-4 McDonald’s East-West Senior All-Star center will be matched up against Bangor’s 6-2 Richie Day.

“It looks like we match up pretty good with them,” Karter said. ” might be a little taller, but the Day kid might be a little heavier.”

Dan Gutierrez, a 6-2 senior guard, has played a big role since his return from an anterior cruciate ligament injury which kept him out of action for all of last season, averaging 12 points and five rebounds per game.

Junior forward Seth Wilson will be relied upon for rebounds, while 5-10 senior point guard Troy Dunphe will be in charge of handling Rams point guard Tom Waterman.

Dunphe, a 5-10 senior, makes 8.4 assists per game, and is very similar to Waterman, Karter said.

“I think we’re going to have to contain the Waterman kid, obviously, and Arsenault,” Karter said. “He looks like a pretty explosive player.”

“We’ve got to keep Day off the glass,” he added.

The Blue Blazes’ defense is centered around man-to-man, but has gone to zones when the occasion called for it, and Westbrook consistently brings four players off the bench to give the starters a break.

The trick will be to see who controls the tempo, Karter said.

“We know Bangor likes to slow it down a little bit, and we’ve played in games where we played up-tempo this season,” Karter said. “It will be interesting to see what kind of tempo develops. It’s always interesting to see which team controls the tempo.”