Skowhegan, Cony face Class A showdown

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BANGOR – In a game which looked like it would boil down to the team with the last shot winning, Waterville had the last shot… And Skowhegan won. Well, not actually won so much as survived.

The No. 2 Indians endured a quarterfinal fright from No. 7 Waterville before pulling out a 52-51 win at the Bangor Auditorium Saturday night.

The 16-3 Indians will take on No. 3 Cony of Augusta in an 8:40 p.m. Friday semifinal. Cony dumped Caribou 59-35 Saturday afternoon.

Saturday night, the Purple Panthers used a confusing mix of 2-3 and 3-2 zone defenses and a 2-2-1 full-court press to frustrate Skowhegan’s shooters, reel off 15 unanswered points, and turn an 18-9 second quarter deficit into a 24-21 halftime lead.

The second half was nothing like the first as neither team led by more than five points and the final six minutes featured six lead changes and five ties.

After Skowhegan drained three of four foul shots to retake the lead 46-44 with 3:33 left, it was white-knuckle time for the 2,500 fans.

Both teams answered each other basket for basket in the next two minutes before Skowhegan took a 49-48 lead with 1:17 to play and went into a spread offense after a Waterville turnover.

The Panthers were forced to foul guard Brad Estes, who hit one of two shots to make it 50-48 with 27 seconds left. It was then that Waterville’s bench took over.

Reserve forward took a pass from backup guard Jerry Weisser on the break and scored from the left baseline, drawing a foul in the process and converting the shot for a three-point play.

After Waterville’s second timeout in eight seconds, Lucas Provost sneaked up behind Skowhegan’s Braden Clement and stole the ball.

Provost raced the other way for a layup, but was prevented by the Indians’ Ben Clark, who drew his fifth foul on the play. With 11 seconds left, Provost missed both foul shots. Two seconds later, the Indians called timeout.

With nine seconds to play, Estes took the inbounds pass from the opposite baseline, raced up the court with two Panthers surrounding him, and passed to Clement on the right side. Clement, who drew two more defenders, sprinted over halfcourt to the foul line, spied Jason Ashe, who had come in for Clark, wide-open on the left baseline, and zipped him a pass. Ashe scored on a lay-in on his only shot of the game with 1.7 seconds left as bedlam broke out among the Indians faithful in the stands.

A quick Panthers timeout later, Provost came out to make the inbounds pass. Provost ran left to right on the baseline before hitting Gavin Smith with a perfect cross-court pass. Smith caught the ball near the left opposite baseline, fired off a nine-foot jumper, and watched helplessly as the ball hit the back rim, hung in the air, and bounced off as the buzzer sounded and the nerve-wracked Indians rejoiced.

“We were very lucky,” said Indians coach Mike Nelson. “We lost to them by missing a shot at the buzzer three weeks ago… I’m getting too old for this. I’m a mess!”

Clement led the Indians with 13 points while Jeb Baker came off the bench for 11 points and nine rebounds.

Flood led Waterville with 14 points and six rebounds, Provost had 13 points, and forward Mike Donato had three steals and two assists in the last six minutes.

“When they had 11 seconds left, I knew that was a lifetime for them. We lived with the 2-2-1 full-court press – It got us back in the game – but on that last play, we took a risk that we could pressure them again and Clement beat us,” said Waterville coach Ken Lindlof.

Saturday night, the Cony Rams didn’t let a frontcourt size disadvantage deter them from crashing the boards hard.

Cony simply out-quicked the bigger Vikings to the ball, harassed them with a 2-2-1 press, and outshot them from the perimeter to seize the lead for good with 4:03 left in the first half. Cony went on runs of 12-2 and 11-0 and outrebounded the Vikes 37-23 to put the game away.

“You wear teams down with quickness and I think that’s what we did today,” said Cony coach Bruce Hunt.

The quarter scores bear him out. After scoring 11 points in the first, Caribou was limited to 10, eight, and six in the final three.

Ryan Moore led the 15-4 Rams with 17 points and 13 boards.

Ryan Soucie led the Vikings with 11 points and five rebounds.

Indians 52, Panthers 51

Waterville boys (10-9) Skowhegan (16-3)

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

Weisser 2 4 0 0 4 Estes 2 4 1 2 5

Trinward 3 6 0 0 7 Clement 4 11 4 6 13

Fellows 2 4 0 0 4 Ashe 1 1 0 0 2

Donato 1 2 0 3 2 Nadeau 1 4 3 4 5

Caron 0 0 0 0 0 Baker 5 7 1 2 11

DeGuzman 0 2 0 0 0 Clark 4 8 1 6 9

Smith 2 11 3 6 7 Soll 3 7 1 3 7

Flood 4 5 6 8 14 McKinnon 0 0 0 0 0

Provost 4 7 5 8 13

Totals 18 41 14 25 51 Totals 20 42 11 23 52

Waterville 9 24 31 51

Skowhegan 18 21 34 52

3-pt. goals: Waterville (1-5): Trinward 1-1, Fellows 0-1, DeGuzman 0-1, Provost 0-2; Skowhegan (1-6): Clement 1-3, Nadeau 0-1, Baker 0-1, Soll 0-1

Rams 59, Vikings 35

Caribou (9-10) Cony boys (15-4)

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

Holabird 0 0 0 0 0 Young 3 7 2 2 10

Richards 0 1 0 0 0 Ja.Cushman 1 2 0 1 2

Gorneault 0 1 0 0 0 Moore 6 14 5 5 17

Sterris 0 0 0 0 0 Price 0 0 2 2 2

Belanger 5 14 0 0 10 Jo.Cushman 4 8 1 3 10

Soucie 3 10 3 5 11 Dean 0 0 0 0 0

Umphrey 1 2 0 0 2 Bunker 3 14 0 0 7

Sam 1 3 0 1 2 Crosby 0 1 0 0 0

Plourde 2 7 1 2 5 Ulmer 4 4 0 0 8

Martin 0 1 0 0 0 Hanna 1 1 0 0 2

Funk 2 3 1 2 5 Ray 0 1 1 2 1

Reitmeyer 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 14 42 5 10 35 Totals 22 52 11 15 59

Caribou 11 21 29 35

Cony 10 28 42 59

3-pt. goals: Caribou (2-9): Soucie 2-5, Umphrey 0-1, Balanger 0-3; Cony (4-15): Young 2-6, Jo. Cushman 1-2, Bunker 1-5, Moore 0-2