BANGOR – Alvin Beal stepped to the Bangor Auditorium foul line for his career debut with 4:31 to go in regulation time Tuesday. He eyed the rim carefully.

Then he clanged two shots. Badly.

“I was nervous out there,” the freshman forward admitted.

Later on, Beal would laugh about his early jitters. He nailed six straight freebies (two with 19.8 seconds to go and four in overtime) to help lead the No. 4 Royals to an 82-77 win over No. 5 Van Buren in a Class D quarterfinal.

The key word here is “help.”

Because despite losing three starters to foul woes, including top scorer Josh Knowlton with 5:38 to play in regulation, the defending EM champs invented a way to win.

The Royals improved to 12-7 and will take on No. 1 Central Aroostook of Mars Hill, a 68-42 winner over No. 9 Wisdom of St. Agatha in another Tuesday “D” quarterfinal. Van Buren finished 11-8.

Jonesport-Beals will face Central Aroostook in a Thursday semifinal matchup at 8:35 p.m.

Knowlton had 12 points, nine rebounds and four blocks before picking up a technical foul with 5:38 to go and the Royals down by five points. The foul was his fifth.

But then the Royals rallied, paced by the play of … well … almost everybody at one time or another.

Junior center Dan Redman scored 14 of his 20 points in the second half and overtime and grabbed 11 rebounds.

Ray Mills scored 17 – including seven in the fourth after Knowlton’s exit – before fouling out with 10.7 seconds left in regulation.

Nate Alley made four straight free throws in overtime and was a constant pest on defense as the Royals’ starting point guard.

And Beal hit two foul shots with 1:29 left in overtime to pad a one-point lead, then hit two more with 8.3 seconds to go.

Coach Ordie Alley was pleased to escape with a win.

“What can you say?” he asked. “We won the basketball game with kids that don’t play all the time. It takes a lot of heart for kids to come out and do that.”

Senior Nathan Marquis scored 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for Van Buren. Chanel Wright scored 20 and Zac Cote had 13, including two free throws with 10.7 seconds left to send the game into overtime.

In the other “D” quarterfinal, the Pioneers of St. Agatha hung with the top-seeded Panthers for a half, primarily because of their gritty play on the backboards.

“That was the main reason that they hung around as much as they did in the first half,” CAHS coach Mark Baxter said. “They just crushed us on the glass.”

Wisdom junior Jesse Levesque grabbed eight of his 11 rebounds before intermission, and the Pioneers trailed only 29-21.

Only one thing stood in the way of an even closer score: Wisdom shot only 32 percent on the afternoon.

“The big thing was we were standing around and on our help-side defense we got no rotation down,” Baxter said. “Once we started rotating down and giving a little more help, we were able to control them on the glass a little bit.”

Meanwhile, the Panthers were on their way to a 59 percent shooting effort.

Shane Durost paced the Panthers with 22 points on 8-for-10 shooting. Shane Bradstreet pitched in with 18 points, eight assists and six rebounds, while sophomore Craig Allen scored 13.

Ryan Paradis scored 18 points for the Pioneers. Levesque had 12.

Panthers 68, Pioneers 42

Wisdom boys (8-12) Central Aroostook (17-2)

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

Na. Michaud 0 0 0 0 0 S. Bradstreet 7 15 2 3 18

Soucy 0 0 1 2 1 L. Bradstreet 1 1 2 3 4

Paradis 8 19 1 2 18 S. Durost 8 10 5 6 21

Gervais 2 11 2 3 7 Allen 5 7 1 1 13

No. Michaud 0 4 0 0 0 Shaw 0 0 0 0 0

Levesque 6 12 0 0 12 Brewer 0 1 0 0 0

C. Michaud 0 0 0 0 0 Jo.Woodworth 3 4 0 0 6

Bourgoin 2 8 0 0 4 Walsh 2 7 0 0 4

Rossignol 0 2 0 0 0 Ju.Woodworth 0 0 0 0 0

Collins 0 1 0 0 0 Codrey 1 1 0 0 2

Picard 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 18 57 4 7 42 Totals 27 46 10 13 68

Wisdom 11 21 32 42

Central Aroostook 15 29 47 68

3-pt. goals: Wisdom (2-13): Paradis 1-5, Gervais 1-3, No. Michaud 0-3, Bourgoin 0-1, Collins 0-1; Central Aroostook (4-10): S. Bradstreet 2-6, Allen 2-3, Brewer 0-1

Royals 82, Crusaders 77 (OT)

Van Buren boys (11-7) Jonesport-Beals (12-7)

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

Lajoie 0 4 0 1 0 D. Alley 1 4 0 0 2

E. Ayotte 2 8 4 8 8 Mills 6 17 5 6 17

Cote 4 8 5 6 13 Kelley 3 3 3 6 9

Porter 0 1 1 2 1 A. Beal 3 6 6 8 12

Wright 6 14 8 12 20 Knowlton 6 17 0 0 12

Smith 0 0 0 0 0 Libby 0 0 0 0 0

Sirois 3 8 1 2 8 S. Alley 2 4 0 0 4

Marquis 9 23 5 6 26 Blackwood 0 1 0 0 0

Cyr 0 0 1 2 1 Redman 9 16 2 2 20

J. Alley 0 1 0 0 0

N. Alley 1 4 4 6 6

Totals 24 66 25 39 77 Totals 31 73 20 28 82

Van Buren 13 34 53 70 77

Jonesport-Beals 21 41 55 70 82

3-pt. goals: Van Buren (4-13): Lajoie 0-1, Wright 0-1, Sirois 1-4, Marquis 3-7; Jonesport-Beals (0-9): D. Alley 0-2, N. Alley 0-1, Mills 0-2, Knowlton 0-3, Blackwood 0-1