Bucks, ‘Jammers use depth to advance

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BANGOR – The teams with the best depth in the tournament have gone the deepest into it.

Divisional leaders Camden Hills and Bucksport will meet for the Eastern Maine Class B title in a 4 p.m. Saturday clash by virtue of impressive semifinal wins Wednesday.

Bucksport rode a big third quarter to a 66-49 win over Ellsworth, and despite the fact they had to play Caribou’s game, the Windjammers won anyway – 63-52.

Wednesday night offered dueling defensive strategies centered on one player: For Bucksport, the goal was to stop Eagles senior forward John Morse. For Ellsworth, it was stop Bucks senior guard Jason Harvey. In both cases, the idea was to force someone else to beat them.

The gamble paid off for Bucksport as the versatile Morse finished with eight points, but the Eagles lost their shirts as reserve guard Kyle Mercer came off the bench to shoot 6-for-8 from 3-point range and score a game-high 21 points, guard-forward Corey Guilford added 16, and Harvey still managed 16 points despite a 6-for-20 shooting effort.

“Ultimately, when you come out to shut somebody down, you can do that more often than not, but we’ve dealt with that approach before and I think that’s why we were ready,” said Dave Gonyar, coach of the 19-2 Golden Bucks.

Mercer threw a monkey wrench into Ellsworth’s plans early as he canned two 3’s in a three-minute span near the start of the second quarter.

“We tried to get on Harvey with the diamond-and-one. We just didn’t want him to beat us,” said Eagles coach Dan Clifford. “Then Mercer caught fire and changed the complexion of the game.”

The Bucks never trailed after the first quarter, but Ellsworth hung close until halftime. That was before Harvey, Guilford and Mercer combined for a 12-2 run to start the second half. The Eagles never got closer than 16 from then on.

Adam Smith had 11 points, Scott Bradford 10 points, and Morse keyed a 34-28 Ellsworth rebounding edge with 14 on his own.

Wednesday afternoon, underdog Caribou controlled the boards as well as the style and tempo, but it was all for naught as the ‘Jammers, who press, shoot, and ask questions later, put their fate in the sure hands of seniors Tyler Warren and Troy Gabriele.

Warren and Gabriele responded by scoring 27 of their 45 combined points in the second half and leading a game-deciding 10-0 run late in the fourth quarter.

“We just had to do a good job on defensive rebounding and limit their shots,” said Chris Casavant, coach of the 10-11 Vikings. “We did a good job of that for 31/2 quarters.”

After the ninth lead change of the game made it 44-43 Vikings with 4:31 to play, Warren laid one in on a baseline drive to start the 10-0 run. It was aided by two Viking turnovers, some bad shot selection, and a technical foul that sent senior sharpshooter and ball-handler Joel Griffeth (14 points, seven rebounds) out of the game with three minutes left.

Meanwhile, Gabriele scored eight of his 19 points in the final 21/2 minutes. Gabriele had eight of Camden’s final 12 points, but it was Warren – despite fouling out with 51 seconds left – who was the key as he scored nine of his game-high 26 points in the final quarter.

“Tyler’s one of the most underrated players in Eastern Maine. He’s our leader,” said coach Jeff Hart. “Ever since we converted him to a point guard last season, we’ve been a much better team.”

Since that happened, the ‘Jammers have lost just a single game.

The Vikings did a great job executing their game plan as they kept the game in a half-court offensive mode and outrebounded Camden 11-5 offensively and 39-28 overall, but they couldn’t offset Camden’s depth as its 10-man rotation left the ‘Jammers much fresher in crunch time. It showed as Camden cranked up its transition game with several fast breaks in the final quarter.

Vikings senior swingman Tyler Giles had 13 points and 10 boards.

WINDJAMMERS 63, VIKINGS 52

Caribou boys (10-11) Camden Hills (20-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

St. Peter 0 0 0 0 0 Davis 0 0 0

Nadeau 1 2 2 3 4 Crupi 0 0 0

Nason 1 1 0 0 2 May 1 5 2

Chasse 2 4 4 7 8 Gabriele 5 16 6 6 19

Griffeth 4 17 6 9 14 Moro 1 5 3

Cyr 3 10 2 2 9 T.Stammen 2 2 6

Beaulieu 1 2 0 0 2 Warren 10 19 26

Giles 6 11 1 4 13 G.Stammen 0 2

W.Dennen 1 2 2

Lippman 1 2 1 3

Totals 18 47 15 25 52 Totals 21 52 15 20 63

Caribou 11 22 38 52

Camden Hills 9 24 37 63

3-pt. goals: Caribou (1-10): Cyr 1-5, Griffeth 0-5; Camden Hills (6-26): Gabriele 3-13, Warren 2-6, Moro 1-3, Stammen 0-1, May 0-3

GOLDEN BUCKS 66, EAGLES 49

Ellsworth boys (9-12) Bucksport (19-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Mayo 2 5 0 1 4 McHale 0 1 0 0

DeWitt 2 3 1 2 7 Cain 0 0 0

Luchini 0 0 0 0 0 Beeson 0 0 0

Bradford 1 10 7 8 10 Sheehan 0 1 1

Smith 4 8 3 5 11 Mercer 7 10 21

Jones 0 0 0 0 0 Knight 0 1 0

Wood 0 0 0 0 0 Allard 3 4 0 6

Sawyer 0 0 0 0 0 Nason 0 0 0

Joh.Morse 2 10 4 6 8 Guilford 6 12 3 8 16

Hunnewell 0 0 0 0 0 Harvey 6 20 16

Joc.Morse 1 2 0 0 2 Ogden 0 2 2

McMillan 3 5 1 1 7 Atherton-Dow 1 2

Sullivan 1 2 2

Wingate 0 0 0 0

Totals 15 43 16 23 49 24 54 10 18 66

Ellsworth 7 20 31 49

Bucksport 8 29 51 66

3-pt. goals: Ellsworth (3-10): DeWitt 2-3, Bradford 1-5, Joc.Morse 0-1, Mayo 0-1; Bucksport (8-22): Mercer 6-8, Guilford 1-5, Harvey 1-7, Allard 0-1, Sheehan 0-1