BANGOR – After squaring off twice during the regular season, there was little the Piscataquis Community and Dexter High boys basketball teams didn’t know about each other.

When the two rivals clashed one more time in the Eastern Maine Class C tournament at the Bangor Auditorium Tuesday night, both teams knew they were in for a tough game.

Behind the play of Ben Smith, top-seeded Piscataquis of Guilford fended off a second-half charge by Dexter while escaping with a 63-58 quarterfinal victory.

Coach Jamie Russell’s 19-1 Pirates, who beat the Tigers twice during the regular season, advance to Friday’s 8:35 p.m. semifinal against the winner of Wednesday’s George Stevens-Schenck contest.

The fourth-seeded Tigers closed out the season at 14-6.

The two teams also had met in last year’s quarterfinal round.

“It’s like playing with your kid brother in the driveway,” Russell said. “When you play them enough times, they figure out a way to beat you on a good day. I was very nervous about that.”

PCHS led by as many as 13 points (28-15) in the first half as Dustin Carson scored 14 of his 17 points and registered four steals.

However, Dexter stormed back in the second half behind junior guard Travis Patterson, who poured in 19 of his game-high 21 points after intermission.

Cody Roach’s tip-in and two Matt Mountain free throws got Dexter within two at 45-43 with 5:13 remaining. The Tigers actually had a shot to tie it, but Josh Watson scored from down low and Carson made a foul shot as PCHS pushed the lead back to five.

Dexter couldn’t get any closer down the stretch.

“That’s the hardest thing to do is beat a team three times,” said Smith, who finished with 21 points and nine rebounds.

“We knew that they were gonna make runs and we were gonna make runs, but during that time they were doing it we said we’ve got to keep our composure and we’ve got to respond,” he added.

PCHS was tenacious on the offensive boards with Smith, Carson and Watson (eight points) leading the charge.

Dexter used a variety of defenses to bottle up Pirates guards Kyle Pulkkinen and Keith Dawson, who combined for 11 points on 2-for-23 floor shooting.

“They did a pretty good job on Keith and Kyle the whole game,” Russell said.

Patterson grabbed seven rebounds for Dexter, which received 12 points from Mountain and nine from foul-plagued Dustin Paige.

PIRATES 63, TIGERS 58

Dexter boys (14-6) Piscataquis (19-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Martin 0 0 0 0 0 Hoffman 0 1 0

Patterson 7 14 4 4 21 White 1 1 4

Towle 1 4 3 4 6 Pulkkinen 1 10 4 4 6

Cooley 3 13 1 2 7 Dawson 1 13 5

Hersey 0 1 1 4 1 Smith 6 17 12 21

Mountain 3 8 6 8 12 Joh.Luellen 0 0

Paige 4 7 1 2 9 Watson 4 6 8

Roach 1 6 0 1 2 Carson 7 10 17

Tracy 0 4 2 2

Totals 19 53 16 25 58 20 62 22 31 63

Dexter 8 20 37 58

Piscataquis 14 30 41 63

3-pt. goals: Dexter (4-16): Patterson 3-8, Towle 1-3, Mountain 0-1, Roach 0-2, Cooley 0-2; PCHS (1-12): Dawson 1-8, Pulkkinen 0-4