BANGOR – The bad news for Bangor fans was leading scorer Jason St. Pierre was held below 10 points.

The good news was every other starter more than made up for his shortfall and the Rams withstood a fourth quarter rally by a bloodied, but unbowed Presque Isle team for a 62-53 Eastern Maine Class A semifinal victory at the Bangor Auditorium Friday night.

The second-seeded Rams will take on No. 1 Mt. Blue of Farmington for the Eastern championship Saturday at 9 p.m.

It was the eighth straight tournament victory for the 19-1, two-time defending state champions. Presque Isle ends its season 13-6.

The ballyhooed battle between point guards Kasey Keenan of Presque Isle and Bangor’s Tommy Waterman lived up to its billing as each scored 14 points. Waterman also dished out seven assists to Keenan’s six, but Waterman grabbed six rebounds.

While many eyes were on that guard matchup, underrated Rams guard Mike Wilcox – literally the third wheel in this three-guard lineup – almost stole the show.

Wilcox benefited from increased defensive pressure on St. Pierre and teamed up with Bangor’s other Mike, Mike Arsenault, to batter the Wildcats’ defense with 67 percent shooting from the perimeter in the first half.

Arsenault finished with 20 points and Wilcox put in nine with six assists.

“They put a little more pressure on Jason and Tommy and I guess they left me open a little more than maybe they should have,” said Wilcox. “[Coach Roger Reed] doesn’t tell us not to shoot. If we’re open, he wants us to shoot the ball.”

At Reed’s urging, Arsenault opened up from 3-point range to try and soften up the inside against a bigger Presque Isle team.

“I was throwing balls to him in our walk-through today and I said `Mike, you have to have a big game tonight,’ and he did,” said Reed.

The Wildcats attacked the boards hard in the first quarter, outrebounding the Rams 7-2 overall and 4-0 on the offensive end.

But thanks to deft outside shooting by Arsenault and Wilcox and the Rams’ switch from man-to-man to a 2-3 zone defense, the paint was a bit more hospitable to Bangor in the second quarter.

“Coach told me and a couple other guys if you can step it out, step it out there and shoot it. So I took some 3’s when I had an open shot,” said Arsenault.

Arsenault hit three of his first four 3-pointers and Wilcox was 4-for-5 from the field as the Rams turned a three-point deficit a minute into the second into a four-point lead two minutes later.

The Ram duo’s hot perimeter shooting opened things up in the paint and the Bangor took advantage – enjoying a 9-3 rebounding edge in the second quarter, 3-0 on the offensive end.

Arsenault led the Rams with 13 of his game-high 20 points in the first half. He also grabbed eight boards.

Jacob Robertson led the ‘Cats with 11 rebounds.

Presque Isle mounted a gutty comeback in the final quarter despite the absence of sharpshooting forward George Graves, who spained his ankle late in the first half and never returned.

“That hurt us a lot because he’s probably our best physical athlete and he was doing a superb job defensively [on St. Pierre],” said Wildcats coach Tim Prescott.

Chad Graham (10 points) and Jon Blanchard (11) scored 17 of their combined points in the second half. Graham led the comeback with eight points in the final quarter.

Thanks to Graham and two Keenan 3-pointers from Buck Street, the Wildcats began a 14-3 run with 6:13 left in the game and turned a 13-point Bangor lead into a 52-50 Rams lead with 3:25 left.

Enter Waterman, who scored four of Bangor’s next six points to lead an 8-0 run that put the game away.

“We just couldn’t quite get over the top. I thought we were going to for a second, but we were a couple of possessions away,” said Prescott. “We got sloppy with turnovers in the middle of their zone and a couple shots didn’t go down.”

Rams 62, Wildcats 53

Presque Isle boys (13-6) Bangor (19-1)

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

Keenan 5 16 0 0 14 Waterman 7 12 0 3 14

McPherson 2 7 0 0 4 St. Pierre 4 10 1 2 9

Graham 4 11 0 0 10 Moses 0 0 0 0 0

Blanchard 5 8 1 1 11 Wilcox 4 7 0 1 9

Mastro 0 0 0 0 0 Civiello 4 6 2 2 10

Graves 3 6 0 0 7 Arsenault 7 15 2 2 20

Wood 0 0 0 0 0 Pitula 0 1 0 0 0

Robertson 3 5 1 2 7 Clarkson 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 22 53 2 3 53 Totals 26 51 5 10 62

Presque Isle 18 27 33 53

Bangor 17 30 47 62

3-pt. goals: Presque Isle (7-22): Keenan 4-13, McPherson 0-4, Graham 2-4, Graves 1-1; Bangor (5-15): Waterman 0-4, Wilcox 1-3, Arsenault 4-5, Pitula 0-1, St. Pierre 0-2