Pressure pays dividends for East Grand Godley nets 24 in second half

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BANGOR – Coach Troy Cilley hopes if his East Grand team presses relentlessly, its opponents eventually will succumb.

The Vikings covered all 86 feet of the Bangor Auditorium floor for the full 48 minutes Saturday night. The result was a fourth-quarter surge that carried East Grand to a 69-52 Eastern Maine Class D schoolboy quarterfinal basketball victory over Southern Aroostook.

Senior James Godley scored 24 of his game-high 26 points in the second half to spearhead the 18-2 Vikings into Thursday’s 3:35 p.m. semifinal against Monday’s Bangor Christian-Washburn winner.

Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook closes out the season at 10-10.

East Grand’s swarming 2-2-1 full-court press created many of the Warriors’ 24 turnovers, 14 of which came in the second half.

“That’s pretty much our game,” Godley said. “We get some steals off it, but if we don’t get steals, we hope to wear the team down, get some loose balls and a little momentum.”

The Vikings surged early in the fourth, turning a three-point edge into a 59-48 lead with 3:57 left. Godley scored on a spinning baseline move, hit a layup off a Darius Parker steal, then made two foul shots to ignite the pivotal 10-2 run.

Southern Aroostook managed only six points in the quarter, four of which came form the foul line.

“We love to press. The guys feed off the press,” Cilley said. “During the season we’ll get more turnovers on the smaller courts, but up here we use it just to keep the tempo going and hopefully wear the opponent down a little bit in the second half.”

Godley, who struggled to 1-for-11 shooting in the first half, made six of 11 after intermission. He doled out four assists.

“When it’s time to put a team away or our backs are against the wall, he steps up and he’ll make a play happen and the other guys feed off it,” Cilley said.

Rhett Mortland connected for 13 of his 18 points in the first half and pulled down 12 rebounds for the Vikings. Parker added nine points.

Corey Edkins paced SAHS with 19 points, Lucas Nadeau provided 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Corey Shields chipped in with 14 points, 11 boards and two blocks.

East Grand, which beat SAHS twice during the regular season, had scored 19 straight points to take a 19-4 first-quarter lead. However, the Warriors outscored the Vikings 25-4 during a span of almost seven minutes and led by as many as six late in the first half.

VIKINGS 69, WARRIORS 52

Southern Aroostook (10-10) East Grand (18-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Hardy 1 5 1 1 3 Zugelder 3 7

Edkins 7 15 2 2 19 Mortland 7 14 2 3 18

Nadeau 6 17 4 4 16 Godley 7 22 11 16 26

McCluskey 0 4 0 0 0 Parker 3 10 9

Shields 5 7 4 6 14 R. Byers 2 4

Caswell 0 0 0 0 0 M. Hanington 0 0

Grant 0 1 0 0 0 Shain 0 1 0

Philibert 0 0 0 0 0 Preston 0 0 0

Nadeau 0 0 0 0 0 E. Hanington 2 4

Hartin 0 1 0 1 0 Scott 0 0 0

Hersey 0 0 0 0 0 Faulkner 0 1

Boutilier 0 0 0 2 0

Totals 19 50 11 16 52 Totals 24 66 16 30 69

East Grand 19 28 49 69

So. Aroostook 11 29 46 52

3-pt. goals ? East Grand (5-17): Mortland 2-3, Godley 1-9, Parker 2-4, Byers 0-1; So. Aroostook (3-10): Hardy 0-1, Edkins 3-5, Nadeau 0-1, McCluskey 0-3