BANGOR – The wave of upsets sweeping the Eastern Maine tourney couldn’t overcome the experience and senior leadership of the No. 2 Katahdin Cougars in their Class D boys basketball quarterfinal against the No. 7 Greenville Lakers.

The Cougars of Sherman Station, the defending EM champs, turned to poised seniors Brandon McCarthy, Dan Cullen and Christopher Robinson to beat the Lakers 70-56 Monday morning at the Bangor Auditorium.

Katahdin will battle No. 11 Bangor Christian in a 3:35 p.m. Thursday semifinal.

Katahdin coach Bill McAvoy said his players were a little nervous before the game but benefited from three games on the Auditorium floor last season and knew what it took to win.

“I told the kids before the game we’d seen eight upsets in the 11 games so far. I said we didn’t want to make it nine so we had to come out and play up to our ability,” McAvoy said.

McCarthy, a 5-foot-7 guard and last year’s William C. Warner MVP, featured some accurate perimeter shooting and nice driving moves to the basket. He finished with 23 points.

His perimeter play was complemented by some strong inside work by Dan Cullen and Christopher Robinson, both 6-3. Robinson sparked the Cougars early when he scored 10 of his 16 points in the first quarter.

Cullen was steady throughout and sliced through Greenville’s 1-3-1 zone en route to 20 points on an 8-for-11 effort from the field. Cullen moved well without the ball and was the recipient of some sharp McCarthy passes.

“We had a good inside and outside attack,” McCarthy said. “Our big guys rebounded well and controlled the backboards.”

The steady play of Katahdin’s three seniors canceled out a strong effort from Greenville’s Tyler Muzzy, a 6-3 junior swingman. Muzzy featured some explosive moves to the basket en route to 29 points. He took the ball to the basket, was frequently fouled and hit 10 of 11 from the line.

Katahdin surged to an eight-point first-quarter lead and Greenville cut it to four in the second but the Cougars responded with a 12-5 run to end the half for an 11-point lead.

The Cougars’ balance was too much for the Lakers in the third and fourth quarters as Katahdin upped its lead to as much as 21 with two minutes left in the game.

Cougars 70, Lakers 56

Greenville (14-7) Katahdin (16-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Knowlton 4 6 2 2 11 Perry 1 5 2

Muzzy 8 19 10 11 29 Lane 0 0 0

Boucher 0 1 0 0 0 Robinson 8 20 0 0 16

Ethier 2 10 6 8 10 McCarthy 9 20 1 2 23

Belmont 1 2 0 0 2 Willigar 0 0

R. Douglass 0 2 0 0 0 Atkinson 2 5

Aucoin 1 9 0 0 2 McNally 0 0 0

Campbell 1 4 0 0 2 T. Rodgerson 0 0

Cullen 8 11 4 20

Heath 0 0 0 0

Kelley 0 5 0 0

D. Rodgerson 2 7 4

Sullivan 0 0 0

Totals 17 53 18 21 56 30 74 10 70

Greenville 11 31 39 56

Katahdin 18 42 53 70

3-pt. goals: Greenville (4-13): Knowlton 1-2, Muzzy 3-3, Boucher 0-1, Ethier 0-1, Aucoin 0-6; Katahdin (5-19): Robinson 0-2, McCarthy 4-9, T. Rodgerson 0-1, Kelley 0-5, Atkinson 1-2