MOUNT DESERT – A burly senior and a precocious freshman who had already played the majority of the JV game conspired to knock John Bapst from the ranks of schoolboy basketball’s unbeatens Saturday night.

For a half, Mount Desert Island showed signs that it might run the Crusaders out of Bernard Parady Gymnasium. The Trojans led by as much as 12, had the crowd on their side, and took a 27-19 halftime advantage.

But after getting a determined second-half defensive effort, a couple of key stops in the late going, and withstanding an around-and-out buzzer-beating 3-point attempt, John Bapst escaped with a 45-44 victory and a perfect 6-0 record.

The Trojans dropped to 4-3.

MDI senior Matt McFarland, who pulled the Trojans within one on a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 36 seconds left, had his potential game-winner rattle out at the buzzer.

Just seconds earlier, MDI’s Matt Reed stole the ball at midcourt and called timeout while sliding along the floor in front of the home bench. On the ensuing play, freshman Ian Jones had his running eight-footer blocked by Bapst senior Geoff Picard with nine seconds left.

Picard gathered in the rebound, was fouled, and missed the front end of a one-and-one with seven seconds left to set up McFarland’s shot.

“We’re going to have these nights,” John Bapst coach Bob Cimbollek said. “Four years ago, when we were undefeated, we beat them at the buzzer. We should have lost. We should have lost tonight. They outplayed us.”

Picard was more direct in his assesment.

“We were just so high [with the undefeated record]. I think we definitely looked past them,” he said.

MDI’s early success can be largely credited to the big and small sides of its lineup – 6-foot-4 senior Ben Ketchen and the 5-8 Jones, son of MDI coach Wilton Jones.

Ketchen scored six of his 12 points and grabbed six of his eight rebounds in the first quarter to provide the inside power against the Crusaders’ big men.

And while playing in the nightcap of his personal basketball doubleheader, reserve Jones hit the floor smoking and scored 12 of his 14 points before intermission.

“The reality is, this was the first night that I really turned [Ian] loose and just told him that we were going to clear out, we were going to let him go one-on-one,” Wilton Jones said.

The final clear-out was a pick-and-roll between Ketchen and Jones that opened the wiry freshman up for an instant on his drive. But when he shot, Picard was there.

“I’m just thinking, `He hits this, and the game’s over,” Picard said. “I remember coach Cimbollek telling me you’ve got to wait for the ball to leave his hand. So that’s what I did.”

Ian Jones said he thought he had an open shot after scraping his defender, Geoff Halber, off on Ketchen’s pick.

“The shot was in the air before I saw [Picard],” he said.

Junior Volker Tuettenberg led the Crusaders with 12 points and seven rebounds, while Jake Ward and Matt Zamejtis-Brown netted nine points each.

Sophomore Aaron Gray helped the Trojans with 13 points and nine rebounds.

Despite the final score, Wilton Jones said the game should teach his team a lesson.

“We got over a hurdle tonight in terms of whether we’re a condender or not,” he said. “I think we can be a contender, with some hard work.”

Crusaders 45, Trojans 44

John Bapst (6-0) Mount Desert Island (4-3)

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

Millard 0 1 0 0 0 Jones 6 8 0 0 14

Lockman 1 2 0 0 3 Ingrisano 0 1 0 0 0

Ward 3 7 2 3 9 Reed 0 0 0 0 0

Halber 2 6 0 0 4 McFarland 2 9 0 0 5

Ford 0 2 0 0 0 Bundy 0 1 0 0 0

Zmjts-Brwn 4 8 1 2 9 Gray 5 9 3 4 13

Tremble 0 0 0 0 0 Ketchen 6 14 0 0 12

Tuettenberg 5 12 2 2 12 Doreika 0 1 0 0 0

Mathien 0 0 0 0 0

Picard 4 6 0 3 8

Totals 19 44 5 10 45 Totals 19 43 3 4 44

John Bapst 5 19 33 45

Mount Desert Island 14 27 35 44

3-pt. goals: John Bapst (2-10): Lockman 1-2, Ward 1-3, Ford 0-1, Zamejtis-Brown 0-1, Tuettenberg 0-3; MDI (3-6): Jones 2-2, McFarland 1-4;

Attendance: 700