BANGOR – Saturday’s last two Eastern Maine Class A boys quarterfinal games featured two teams with two strong starts. One rode its all the way to victory while the other had to combine its start with a strong finish to pull one out.

At night, Cony of Augusta parlayed a game-opening 11-4 run into a comfortable 71-63 win over Skowhegan. In the afternoon, Presque Isle opened with a 13-2 run, watched it dwindle away, found itself down by six in the final quarter, and then reeled off a 15-3 run to cap a 60-53 win over Oxford Hills of South Paris.

Saturday afternoon, Wildcats coach Tim Prescott thought it might be the end of the line after watching his team squander a big first-half lead and go down by six with 5:20 left.

“Our kids hung in there. When they got down there, they could have said, ‘Well, we had a good season and gave it a good try. That’s it,’ but they didn’t,” said Prescott, who has gone through a hair-graying type of season featuring several late comebacks.

“I’m not worried about it going gray, I’m more worried about keeping it on my head,” Prescott joked. “I’d just like to have some hair when it’s over.”

It won’t be over at the earliest until Friday night, when the 17-3 ‘Cats meet 16-4 Cony of Augusta in an 8:30 semifinal game.

The Jeckyll-and-Hyde ‘Cats stayed true to form, but this time they were able to climb back out of the pit they’d dug for themselves via the foul line, where they canned 27 of 35 shots in the game.

“We could not defend them without fouling and they buried us from the line,” said Scott Graffam, coach of the 12-8 Vikings. “We’re a physical team. We’re a football team in a football conference, but when you get to the tournament, you can’t play like that.”

The Vikings, who were 9-for-14 at the line, were called for six player-control fouls en route to 30 total and had three starters foul out in the final four minutes.

Presque Isle’s comeback catalyst was senior guard Denis Saucier, another foul-plagued player who returned to action with seven minutes left to play after picking up his fourth early in the third quarter.

Just 24 seconds after two free throws by Nick Casavant (15 points, seven rebounds) cut it to 47-43 Vikes, Saucier (11 points) stole a pass and fed it to Fred Bird (14 points) for a fast-break layup with 4:40 left. Saucier then drew the fifth foul on OH forward Brendan Gilmore and hit both free throws 28 seconds later to tie it up.

With 3:23 left, Saucier made the last of three steals and missed a high-post jumper, but Bird was there for the rebound, scored, drew a foul, and hit the free throw to cap an 11-0 run over a two-minute, 17-second span.

The Vikes closed within 56-53, but mounting fouls and dwindling time, plus 6-for-8 PI foul shooting in the last 44 seconds, iced it.

Senior forward Tyler Cummings led OH with 22 points, 16 rebounds, and four blocked shots.

Saturday night, the only time Cony trailed in the game was in the first 13 seconds (2-0). The Rams withstood an 11-0 Indians run in the second quarter, scored the first seven points of the second half, and never led by less than six the rest of the way.

“They got off to a great start and changed our game plan,” said Larry Judd, coach of 15-5 Skowhegan. “We wanted more of a half-court game, but we had to switch gears real quick.”

Cony stripped those gears behind 6-4 junior forward Jac Arbour (21 points, 13 boards), guards Shawn Gallagher (18 points, seven boards, four assists) and Ray Vallee (11 points), and senior forward Ryan Beer (11 points, six rebounds).

B.J. Dunlap paced Skowhegan with 20 points while 6-foot-8 center R.J. Anzelc had 11 points, 14 boards, five blocks, two assists, and two steals. Ryan Brod had 16 points, seven boards, and four assists, while Derek Holt scored 10 points.

RAMS 71, INDIANS 63

Skowhegan boys (15-5) Cony (16-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Hight 2 8 0 2 4 Gallagher 6 18

Washburn 0 1 0 0 0 Vachon 0 0 0

Malek 0 0 0 0 0 Vallee 1 5 12 11

Brod 6 14 3 3 16 Hinds 0 5 0 0

Holt 5 10 0 0 10 Conrad 5 8 0 10

Dunlap 8 15 0 0 20 Arbour 9 17 21

Mitchell 1 1 0 0 2 Schlager 0 0

Anzelc 4 8 3 5 11 Beer 4 16 11

Susi 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 26 58 6 10 63 Totals 25 61 16 25 71

Skowhegan 15 30 37 63

Cony 20 36 47 71

3-pt. goals: Skowhegan (5-20): Dunlap 4-7, Brod 1-5, Hight 0-4, Holt 0-4; Cony (5-16): Gallagher 2-2, Beer 2-6, Vallee 1-3, Schlager 0-1, Hinds 0-4

WILDCATS 60, VIKINGS 53

Oxford Hills boys (12-8) Presque Isle (17-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Stearns 3 6 0 1 9 Graves 1 6 6

Tuominen 0 0 0 0 0 James 0 3 4

Slack 2 5 0 0 4 Saucier 4 8 11

Austin 0 3 3 3 3 Lockhart 0 2

Morin 2 4 0 0 5 Casavant 2 12 11 13 15

Chaplin 0 1 0 0 0 Bird 5 10 14

Wall 0 0 0 0 0 Hall 1 3 0 2

Perry 0 0 0 0 0 Fortin 3 9 6

Grenier 0 0 0 0 0

Jones 0 0 0 0 0

Tielinen 2 7 3 4 8

Cummings 9 16 3 4 22

Emery 0 1 0 0 0

Gilmore 1 4 0 2 2

Totals 19 47 9 14 53 Totals 16 51 27 35 60

Oxford Hills 5 22 43 53

Presque Isle 15 28 41 60

3-pt. goals: Oxford Hills (6-15): Stearns 3-4, Cummings 1-1, Morin 1-1, Tielinen 1-4, Chaplin 0-1, Emery 0-1, Austin 0-1, Slack 0-2; Presque Isle (1-10): Saucier 1-1, Graves 0-1, James 0-1, Bird 0-1, Casavant 0-6