BANGOR – This time of year, the Calais basketball community is usually abuzz about the high school team … The girls’ team. Well move over girls, because the Blue Devils boys are heating things up at the Bangor Auditorium too.

The No. 2 Calais boys are back after a seven-year absence and judging from Monday night’s impressive 71-62 Eastern Maine Class C quarterfinal victory over No. 7 George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill, they intend to stay awhile.

Junior center Joe Footer finished with a game-high 27 points and nine rebounds to lead the 17-2 Devils to a 3:35 p.m. Friday semifinal date with two-time defending regional champ Penquis. The young Eagles finish up 12-8.

“Yeah, we’ve been on the bubble the last three years, so it’s nice to have this kind of season,” said second-year coach Randy Morrison.

Footer, Calais’ 6-foot-5 pivot man, missed just three shots all game. His performance plus that of sophomore swingman Nathan Pelletier, who came off the bench to score 16 points and grab five boards, were the difference, especially with so much of GSA’s defensive focus on freshman point guard Andy Frost and senior forward James Frost – Calais’ big, brotherly weapon.

“Our scouting report on them was Frost and Frost. We held them to 17 total points, fouled out one of them [James], but the big kid, who’s averaging 8-10 a game, hardly missed and the Pelletier kid had eight in the third quarter,” said GSA coach Matt Mattson. “They were deeper than I thought they were and multi-dimensional.”

“That’s the way it’s been all year,” Footer said. “One guy’ll score 29 one game and not do much the next, but somebody’s always there to take up the slack.”

Both teams almost exclusively used tight, man-to-man pressure, but Calais had more success early as GSA committed 13 first half turnovers to help the Devils build a 37-24 halftime lead.

The Eagles’ only lead was 2-0 17 seconds into the game, but they refused to go away, battling back from a 15-point deficit in the third and 12 in the fourth to close within five with 4:29 to play.

However, the Devils’ pressure began to take effect again as the Eagles turned the ball over four times in the final five minutes and GSA hit seven of their last eight from the line to pull away.

Junior center Ryan Hutchins led the Eagles with 18 points while sophomore forward Nick Henry finished with 13 points, nine boards, and seven assists. Sophomore guard Mark Clapp had 12 points and six assists.

Blue Devils 71, Eagles 62

George Stevens Acad. boys (12-8) Calais (17-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Black 1 3 0 0 2 Pelletier 6 16

Astbury 0 0 0 0 0 Adams 2 7 6

Smith 5 10 0 0 10 J.Frost 4 10 8

Ledien 1 4 1 2 4 S.MacDonald 0 0

Henderson 1 1 0 0 3 A.Frost 3 9 9

Henry 4 9 5 5 13 J.MacDonald 1 2

Clapp 5 10 1 2 12 Footer 12 15 27

Lowell 0 4 0 0 0 LaPointe 1 3

Hutchins 8 10 2 2 18

Totals 25 51 9 11 62 Totals 29 56 13 22 71

George Stevens Academy 14 24 43 62

Calais 16 37 55 71

3-pt. goals: George Stevens (3-11): Henderson 1-1, Clapp 1-3, Ledien 1-4, Smith 0-1, Henry 0-2; Calais (0-6): Adams 0-1, J. MacDonald 0-1, A. Frost 0-2, J. Frost 0-2