GSA’s man-to-man eliminates Wolverines

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BANGOR – George Stevens boys basketball coach Matt Mattson would trade 100 points scored for the defense his team played Wednesday afternoon any day of the week.

The Eagles played a stifling man-to-man defense limiting Schenck of East Millinocket’s Wolverines to just four baskets on 24 attempts in the second half en route to a 64-39 win in their Eastern Maine Class C quarterfinal.

George Stevens of Blue Hill, the Southeast’s second seed, will play the northeast’s top seed Piscataquis of Guilford, Friday night at 8:35 in the semifinals.

“There’s no secret to what we do. We don’t have any type of magic formula. We just come out and play man-to-man. We play half court man. We try to get good help side defense. And make minor adjustments. We’ve got a whole team of guys who play defense every single day,” Mattson said.

It helps defensively to have a man in the middle with the presence of Ryan Hutchins. The 6-8 senior was a force, blocking two shots and altering many others to go along with the 15 points and seven rebounds he collected.

Trailing early in the second half and having already lost the solid play of junior Mike Rossignol to fouls, Schenck changed defenses from a 2-3 zone to man-to-man. The bigger Eagles began to take their game inside.

“I felt if we could get them out of zone and into man we could pound it inside,” Mattson said.

The primary beneficiary of the move was junior Nick Henry. The 6-3 forward finished the game with 14 points and 12 rebounds, most of his points coming off moves close to the basket.

?It?s great to win this one since we lost last year in the first round. We wanted to come out and make a statement,? Henry said.

Eagles sixth-man Duane Ledien did his usual good job coming off the bench to connect on three of four 3-pointers and finishing with 10 points. Jake Lowell also had 10 points and Mark Clapp had nine points and five assists for 18-2 George Stevens.

Seth Johnston had 12 points for 12-8 Schenck. Stanley Graham Jr. had nine points and Ryan Deschenes scored six points and grabbed 14 rebounds.

EAGLES 64, WOLVERINES 39

Schenck (12-8) George Stevens (18-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Johnston 4 10 3 4 12 Astbury 2 3 4

Thompson 0 6 0 0 0 Clapp 3 9 9

Rossignol 3 7 0 0 7 Ledien 3 5 10

Kimball 0 0 0 2 0 Allen 0 1 0

Deschenes 2 13 2 2 6 Freedman 0 2

Waite 0 0 0 0 0 Henry 5 10 14

B. Graham 1 6 1 1 3 Templeton 0 0

Jamo 0 2 2 2 2 Sanders 0 0 0 0

Van Ess 0 0 0 0 0 Lowell 4 5 10

Barnett 0 0 0 0 0 Candage 0 0 0

S. Graham 4 8 2 2 9 Hutchins 6 13 3 4 15

Friend 0 1 0 0

Totals 14 52 10 13 39 Totals 23 47 14 19 64

Schenck 13 24 33 39

George Stevens 15 30 48 64

3-pt. goals: Schenck (3-9): S. Graham 1-3, Johnston 1-2, Rossignol 1-2, Jamo 0-1, B. Graham 0-1; George Stevens (3-7): Ledien 3-4, Clapp 1-3