Brunswick batters Bangor in 1st Auditorium outing Mims sparks undefeated Dragons into Friday’s semis

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BANGOR – New tournament. New venue… New power in town.

The Brunswick Dragons emphatically served notice that they’re taking this Eastern Maine Class A basketball tournament thing pretty seriously as they dealt two-time defending state champion Bangor its worst tourney loss in 11 years and earliest exit in eight.

Sophomore guard Ralph Mims was simply impossible to match up with or slow down as he led the 20-0 Dragons to an 81-49 quarterfinal victory with a game-high 28 points, eight rebounds and four steals.

“When he misses, he’s as dangerous as when he’s shooting because he follows his shot real well,” said Rams coach Roger Reed.

The Dragons will meet Mt. Blue of Farmington in a 7 p.m. Friday semifinal game. Bangor finishes 15-5 after its worst playoff defeat since an 84-50 loss to Old Town in the 1991 regional semifinals.

“They’ve got lots more firepower than we have and we knew we had to keep it a half-court game without getting too far behind. That didn’t happen because they’re just too good a basketball team,” Reed said. “After the first quarter, it sort of got out of hand. We just didn’t match up well with them at all.”

Not with 6-foot-3 Mims, not with 6-5 center Dan Hammond, who’s more like a point guard in a center’s body, and not with 6-3 guard Drew Pelletier. Pelletier and Hammond scored 18 points each. Hammond added eight rebounds, seven assists, and three blocks. Pelletier had seven rebounds and three assists.

Bangor kept the tempo to its liking (slow) in the first quarter as the Dragons finished with an 11-8 lead, but two Mims 3-pointers within a 72 seconds fueled a 12-3 run in the first three minutes of the second that gave them a comfortable cushion for good.

From there, it seemed every Rams basket was answered with three or four by Brunswick.

Hammond said knowing they were playing the defending state champs in an unfamiliar arena certainly helped sharpen his team’s focus.

“We knew to be the best you have to beat the best and they are the best by far. In Maine, everybody looks at Bangor, two-time defending state champs,” he said. “You’ve gotta go through them to win. And if you don’t go through them, people will say ‘Well you didn’t beat the defending state champs. You got it easy,’ so we’re glad we got a chance to play them.”

Star junior guard Zak Ray was held scoreless in the first half, but still led the Rams with 20 points, four rebounds, six assists and three steals.

DRAGONS 81, RAMS 49

Bangor boys (15-5) Brunswick (20-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Rambo 1 1 0 0 2 Alexander 0 1

Achorn 0 1 0 0 0 Koerber 0 0 0

Ray 6 16 5 7 20 Murphy 0 0 0 0

Gallant 0 1 0 0 0 Mims 9 20 28

Dowe 0 0 0 0 0 Lobikis 2 4 0 4

Bombardier 1 5 0 0 2 Hammond 8 10 18

Nickerson 2 11 0 0 6 Duffy 2 4 4

Sutcliffe 1 1 0 0 2 Williams 0 0

Civiello 0 4 0 0 0 Gagnon 0 0 0

K.Flynn 0 0 0 1 0 Pelletier 6 10 6 7 18

R.Flynn 2 9 1 4 5 LaPrad 0 0 0

Guerette 2 3 2 2 6 Caron 2 5 6

Shain 2 6 2 2 6 Baribeau 0 0

Zamore 0 0 2 2

Totals 17 58 10 16 49 Totals 29 53 19 28 81

Bangor 8 20 40 49

Brunswick 11 33 59 81

3-pt. goals: Bangor (5-17): Ray 3-6, Nickerson 2-8, Bombardier 0-1, Achorn 0-1, Gallant 0-1; Brunswick (4-10): Mims 3-6, Hammond 1-1, Lobikis 0-1, Pelletier 0-2