BANGOR – In the 41 seasons since the Maine Principals’ Association reclassified high schools by enrollment from three to four classes in most sports, the only banners Brunswick’s basketball teams have been able to hang on the gym wall were for good sportsmanship.

There are only two of those, and both were won by the girls.

All that changed Saturday night as the Brunswick boys raced out to a big lead only to have to survive a stirring rally by a stubborn Cony of Augusta team before posting a 71-66 victory in the Eastern Maine Class A championship game.

Unbeaten Brunswick, which had never been a regional top seed in basketball before this year, is a step away from a perfect season. All that’s left for the 22-0 Dragons is a gold ball, which they’ll get if they beat two-time Western Maine champ Deering of Portland in a 9 p.m. state final at Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland Saturday.

“It feels a lot better than I thought it might. I can’t even describe it,” said junior guard Drew Pelletier, who along with senior captain Dan Hammond has won three team regional titles on a different kind of court (tennis). “We’ve worked all year for this. We’ve worked hard in practice every day and we executed when we needed to.”

“I never even thought about this. I couldn’t even really imagine it,” said Hammond. “The fans and the noise were all I could hear. It was amazing. This is the most people I’ve ever seen in one gym or played in front of. I couldn’t describe this feeling if I wanted to.”

None of Brunswick’s players knew if they’d get that chance after the Rams scored 11 of the first 13 points in the fourth quarter to cut a 14-point Dragons lead to 55-50 with 5:15 to play. It only got scarier as Cony, which trailed by as many as 15 points in the second half, outscored Brunswick 7-1 in a 47-second span to make it a one-point deficit (63-62) with 2:14 left.

It stayed that way as both teams traded baskets for the next minute and 45 seconds. Then, with 29 seconds to play and the Dragons up 67-66, Cony backup center Ben Raber rebounded a Brunswick miss and was fouled. Raber, who had yet to attempt a shot from the field or foul line, missed both free throws and Brunswick’s Ralph Mims grabbed the rebound off the second one. After Cony fouled Mims with 22 seconds to go, the 6-foot-3 sophomore guard pulled away from his teammates and walked to center court.

After a few seconds by himself, Mims strode to the line, took a deep breath, and hit his first shot. Another deep breath later, he dropped the second one in as well.

“I just thought about what my dad told me,” Mims said. “He said a real man does it at crunch time and a real man can make free throws. I just had to stay focused and remember that.”

A Cony timeout and four seconds later, a Rams pass sailed out of bounds on the right sideline. Pelletier was fouled by Ryan Beer a second later. Beer fouled out with his fifth and Pelletier hit both shots for a five-point cushion.

A 3-point shot from the right wing with five seconds left by Scott Hinds, who ignited Cony’s late rally with two 3’s in a two-minute span, bounced off the rim and into the hands of Pelletier, who held the ball as time ran out. Mims dropped and laid on his back with his arms thrust upward in celebration, but soon disappeared under a mound of jubilant teammates as orange-clad fans spilled onto the court to celebrate the historic win.

Pelletier scored a game-high 23 points and had six rebounds as Cony focused on big guns Mims (21 points, six rebounds, three steals) and Hammond (10 points, 11 boards, two steals).

“Drew steps up and just quietly goes about his business, and if there’s such a thing as a quiet 23 in a regional final, he did it,” said Brunswick coach Todd Hanson.

Center Taylor Caron had nine points and five rebounds as Brunswick outrebounded Cony 32-26.

Ryan Conrad came off Cony’s bench for 16 points and five rebounds. Fellow junior forward Jac Arbour had 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Senior guard Shawn Gallagher, the target of Brunswick’s diamond-and-one defense, scored 10 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter.

Cony mixed it up and used seven different defenses on Brunswick.

“We haven’t played that much zone with those combinations all year long,” said Cony coach Bruce Hunt, whose team finished 17-5. “Our kids had a heck of a lot of heart tonight, but it’s real tough to stop all their threats.”

DRAGONS 71, RAMS 66

Cony boys (17-5) Brunswick (22-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Gallagher 4 10 4 5 13 Koerber 0 0 0

Vachon 0 0 0 0 0 Mims 7 14 21

Vallee 1 5 0 0 3 Lobikis 1 2 2

Hinds 3 10 0 0 9 Hammond 5 12 10

Conrad 5 11 6 8 16 Duffy 1 3 2

Arbour 5 8 4 4 14 Williams 1 4

Schlager 1 4 0 0 2 Pelletier 6 11 14 23

Beer 4 8 0 0 9 Caron 3 5 3 9

Raber 0 0 0 2 0

Totals 23 56 14 19 66 24 44 22 33 71

Cony 14 22 39 66

Brunswick 24 33 53 71

3-pt. goals: Cony (6-19): Hinds 3-8, Beer 1-3, Vallee 1-3, Gallagher 1-4, Schlager 0-1; Brunswick (1-6): Mims 1-4, Hammond 0-1, Pelletier 0-1