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BANGOR – East Grand coach Troy Cilley’s plan was fairly straightforward for Thursday night’s Eastern Class D boys semifinal game: Press the living bejeepers out of the unpressable Woodland and keep the athletic Dragons away from the paint.
Done and done. Cilley’s top-seeded Vikings of Danforth used a 2-2-1 zone press to slow the freewheeling Dragons down, outrebounded them, and blunted a late Woodland rally by hitting 10 of 14 foul shots down the stretch to pull out a 68-62 win over the No. 5 seed at the Bangor Auditorium.
East Grand meets No. 2 Katahdin in Saturday’s 11 a.m. regional championship game.
Woodland committed just four turnovers in the second half and 14 overall to East Grand’s 18, but the energy they expended to escape the Vikings press took its toll on the Dragons, who use only six players in their rotation.
“You work somebody that hard end to end, where they’re not used to working to bring it up, and they get tired, frustrated … And that can mess a team up really bad,” said junior guard James Godley, one-third of East Grand’s 1-2-3 offensive punch with 20 points.
“It’s a different press from what we’ve seen all year,” said coach Mike Look, whose Dragons wind up 15-6. “We have a lot of press-breaking options and we still couldn’t solve it.
“They positioned their guys in areas we like to throw long to. We got the ball in, but it forced us into a tempo we weren’t comfortable with.”
As a result, the Vikings were still able to get back on defense, while still pressing, and make it difficult for the Dragons to penetrate the paint.
Thanks to a big effort off the bench from 6-foot-4 junior center Jim Zugelder – who spelled starting center Otto Ruebsamen after he picked up his third foul with 4:16 left in the second quarter – and 6-3 junior forward Rhett Mortland, the Vikes outrebounded the tenacious Dragons 21-8 in the second quarter and 44-31 overall.
Mortland, one of the other Viking thirds, finished with 15 points and 15 rebounds. Zugelder had just five points, but grabbed 11 boards.
The other third, Darius Parker, scored six of East Grand’s final 10 points en route to a game-high 21. The freshman guard showed no first-year jitters as he scored 10 points in the pivotal fourth quarter and went 8-for-8 from the line.
The Vikes had a comfortable 58-51 edge with 3:29 to play, but Woodland scored seven unanswered points to tie it with 2:12 left. After a timeout, the Vikes went into a 3-2 spread offense, forcing Woodland to foul.
Senior forward Frankie Morrison (21 points, seven boards) led Woodland’s charge with two 3-pointers, but the Vikings stood fast, shooting 6-for-7 from the floor and 11-for-16 from the line in the fourth. Fouls also took their toll as Dragons star guard John Kesel (13 points, eight assists, three steals) fouled out with 55 seconds left.
“We concentrated on letting [Kesel] take outside shots because he had 30 or so points in the paint last game,” Cilley said. “For the most part, if they beat us from 20 feet, we were going to accept that.”
Center Matt Lord also turned in a solid effort for the Dragons with 19 points and seven boards.
Vikings 68, Dragons 62
Woodland boys (15-6) East Grand (19-1)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
J.Kesel 6 18 0 0 13 Zugelder 2 5
Ferry 2 12 0 0 4 Ruebsamen 1 4
Lord 9 13 1 2 19 Gillis 0 0 0 0
Gillespie 1 3 1 2 3 Mortland 6 11 3 9 15
Morrison 9 17 1 1 21 Faulkner 1 3
Nicholas 1 3 0 0 2 Godley 8 18 20
Parker 6 13 8 21
Byers 0 5 0 0
Totals 28 66 3 5 62 Totals 24 58 17 24 68
Woodland 15 23 39 62
East Grand 15 30 45 68
3-pt. goals: Woodland (3-23): Morrison 2-6, J. Kesel 1-7, Gillespie 0-1, Nicholas 0-2, Ferry 0-7; East Grand (3-9): Faulkner 1-1, Parker 1-1, Godley 1-7
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