BANGOR – The usual Bangor-Brewer basketball game involves a lot of emotion, excitement, physical play, drama, and a close finish.

Except for the first three traits, Wednesday night’s resounding, 58-35 victory by Bangor was not your usual Bangor-Brewer game. But then, this season’s Bangor team is unusual. Unusually athletic and quick, unusually talented, and unusually methodical in the way it picks apart its opponents and dispatches them with businesslike efficiency.

Such was the case at Red Barry Gym as the Rams, led by the relentless rebounding of junior Joe Campbell (game-high 11) and senior James Bradford (eight), made short work of the Witches.

“It was extremely physical,” said Bradford, who also led the team with 13 points. “That’s the one aspect always in a Bangor-Brewer game, but they never made their run, which they’ve always seemed to make to get them back in the game.”

One of Bradford’s shots typified the kind of night it was for both teams. With time running out after a mad scramble for a rebound at the close of the third quarter, the ball came out to Bradford. He looked at the clock and shot, swishing a 3-pointer from two feet behind the midcourt line at the buzzer.

“To tell you the truth, I was out of breath and I was sort of hoping for the end of the quarter,” he said with a laugh.

The 6-1 Rams bridged the first and second periods with an 11-0 run which gave the Rams an insurmountable 22-7 lead. Just for good measure, Bangor scored the first seven points of the second half to make it 37-13 and effectively put the game on ice.

In the first half, Brewer committed nine turnovers against Bangor’s man-to-man defense while Bangor made two. Before the fourth quarter, when the game had long since been decided and both coaches were emptying their benches, Bangor held a 31-22 rebounding edge – 15-7 on the offensive boards against Brewer’s changing zone defense.

“If you sit in something against these guys and let them get comfortable, you’re in for a long night, but the bottom line in most basketball games is rebounding and defense and they certainly won those battles tonight,” said coach David Paul, whose Witches fell to 2-7.

After struggling against a zone in their only loss of the season to Hampden 13 days ago, it was apparent the Rams had put that extra practice time to good use.

“The game against Hampden gave us a lot of trouble,” said Campbell, who finished with 11 points. “We had trouble making our shots, but tonight they were falling and we got into the gaps and got rebounds.”

Rams coach Roger Reed was worried how his team would play after the long, weather-prolonged layoff, but he needn’t have.

“I thought Monday we had a very good practice, but last night we couldn’t practice and I was a little worried,” Reed said. “When you’ve been playing against your own shirts all the time, you don’t always get the workout you should.”

Brewer was paced by senior swingman Christian Dearborn, who had 11 points and five boards. Forward Frank Rapp finished with nine rebounds.

Rams 58, Witches 35

Brewer boys (2-7) 35 Bangor (6-1) 58

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

Bicknell 1 5 0 0 2 Vanidestine 0 6 0 0 0

Everett 0 0 0 0 0 Loukes 3 8 2 2 9

Goupee 0 0 0 0 0 Gildart 2 7 0 0 5

Violette 1 9 0 0 3 Shea 1 3 0 0 2

Leighton 0 1 0 0 0 Anderson 0 2 0 0 0

Jansen 0 0 0 0 0 Levy 1 4 2 2 4

Killip 3 6 0 0 6 Hughes 0 0 0 0 0

Snell 1 3 0 0 2 Campbell 5 9 1 1 11

Work 1 2 0 2 2 J.Bradford 6 11 0 1 13

Rapp 0 4 0 0 0 Johnson 2 5 0 0 4

Dearborn 4 8 1 2 11 Wright 0 1 0 0 0

Vickery 2 3 0 0 5 Bouchard 2 2 2 2 6

Chasse 1 3 0 0 2 Bell 0 0 0 0 0

Archer 1 2 0 0 2 Goldsmith 1 1 1 2 3

A.Bradford 0 0 1 2 1

Totals 15 46 1 4 35 Totals 23 59 9 12 58

Brewer 7 13 19 35

Bangor 13 30 46 58

3-pt. goals: Brewer (4-12): Dearborn 2-2, Vickery 1-2, Violette 1-6, Snell 0-1, Bicknell 0-1; Bangor (3-14): J.Bradford 1-1, Loukes 1-2, Gildart 1-5, Campbell 0-1, Levy 0-1, Anderson 0-1, Shea 0-1, Vanidestine 0-2

Attendance: 450 (est.)