BANGOR – That the Bangor boys had eagerly awaited their rematch with the Nokomis Warriors of Newport was clearly evident in the opening minutes.

The Rams simply charged ahead from the opening tipoff and left the Warriors in their dust as they scored the first 25 points of the game en route to an 82-55 dismantling of Nokomis at Red Barry Gymnasium Friday night.

“They were very, very focused tonight. They were very excited about playing tonight,” said coach Roger Reed, whose Rams improve to 12-1 after avenging a 53-51 setback in Newport Dec. 30.

Reed’s Rams executed so well Friday, it was hard to decide which phase of the game was handled better: offense or defense.

“We’ve played like that at times, but tonight when they started playing like that, I didn’t say too much. I just let them play for the most part,” said Reed, who was so impressed with Friday’s effort he gave the team Saturday off.

The Rams’ relentless man-to-man pressure harassed the 9-4 Warriors into missing their first 14 field goal attempts.

“I don’t think we’ve ever put up a goose egg on another team’s offense before. That was really cool looking up there and seeing that,” said star forward Joe Campbell.

Bangor’s senior big man had his customary big night as he led the Rams in points (28), rebounds (10), blocks (3) and steals (2).

“We felt we lost that close one a little unfairly so we wanted to come out tonight and show which team was better,” Campbell said. “We knew this was gonna happen. We’ve had this date circled since the last game.

“For me at least, I thought this game was over after the [final] buzzer of the last game. I sat down and said to myself ‘This isn’t going to happen again. We’re going to put them away early’ and we did that.”

The Rams’ ball movement was near-flawless as they dismantled Nokomis’ 2-3 zone. Campbell scored six for the first 12 points and the Rams worked the perimeter to set up some backdoor lay-ins and unguarded perimeter shots.

Sophomore guard Zak Ray was one of the assault’s architects as he deftly distributed the ball en route to a game-high six assists. The transfer student from Winslow also got in on the scoring act with 14 points – 10 in the second half.

Another Rams standout was senior guard Jim Shea, who banged away at Nokomis from outside, nailing three perimeter shot and scoring seven of his 12 points in the opening quarter as the Rams built up a gigantic lead.

Nokomis regrouped a bit in the second quarter as sophomore guard Ryan McLellan hit three 3-pointers and fueled a 12-4 run with 10 points en route to a team-leading 17 points. It proved not enough to dig the Warriors out of the big hole they fell in early on.

Other than the game’s opening minutes, the closest Nokomis would come to the Rams was 14 points the rest of the way.

Things were going so well for Bangor, even when Campbell was forced to the bench with his third foul (with 1:20 left in the third quarter), the Rams widened their lead in his absence, turning a 56-32 comfort margin into a 64-34 bulge 21/2 minutes later.

“We had something to prove this time,” said Ray. “I couldn’t believe they had zero points with the offense they have, but we were playing unbelievably well tonight.”

The Rams outrebounded Nokomis 38-25 overall. Nokomis committed 17 turnovers and Bangor had 10, only three of which came in the second half.

Nokomis coach Jim DiFrederico was ejected from the game after being assessed back-to-back technicals with 6:27 and 6:18 left to play by referee Sean Kimball, who called him for “mouthing off.”

Rams 82, Warriors 55

Nokomis (9-4) Bangor (12-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Henderson 3 8 0 0 9 Vanidestine 3 8

McLellan 7 17 0 0 17 Ray 3 6 14

Estes 3 9 6 6 13 Shea 5 9 12

Burgess 0 1 0 0 0 Anderson 1 2

Peters 0 3 0 0 0 Bombardier 0 0

Veazie 0 1 0 0 0 Hughes 0 0 0

Graves 0 2 0 0 0 Campbell 13 17 0 1 28

Horr 0 0 2 2 2 Johnson 2 5 0 4

Hayden 4 8 2 4 10 Bouchard 4 8

Martin 0 0 0 0 0 Bell 2 4 4

Butler 1 2 0 0 2 Flynn 0 3 0

Toulouse 0 0 2 3 2 Shain 1 2 2

Totals 18 51 12 15 55 Totals 34 62 14 82

Nokomis 0 21 34 55

Bangor 19 37 60 82

3-pt. goals: Nokomis (7-12): McLellan 3-3, Henderson 3-5, Estes 1-2, Veazie 0-1, Graves 0-1; Bangor (5-9): Vanidestine 2-3, Campbell 2-3, Shea 1-2, Ray 0-1

Attendance: 850 (est.)

Preliminary: Bangor JVs 61-51