BREWER – While MacLaughlin Truck and Trailer of Nova Scotia was beating Maria’s Sub and Pizza of Scituate, Mass., for the World Team Candlepin Championship Saturday, James and Charlie Milan III of the defending champion Maine Heat sat in the Bangor-Brewer Lanes lounge, smoking cigars that were supposed to have been used in a celebration.

Instead, the Milans played “what if.” It is a long and sometimes tedious game of second-guessing and dissecting decisions, splits, and spares. In the case of the defending champion Maine Heat team, it was primarily a case of not enough spares.

“The whole week comes down to two boxes. We lost. I bowled bad and I feel bad,” team captain James Milan said.

Maine Heat and Maria’s went into the final two boxes of their semifinal match dead even on total pins with the Heat’s Tim Matero and Maria’s Craig Holbrook working on spares. Holbrook spared both of the final frames while Matero punched out in each box, hitting for two and three counts on his first ball in each box. Maria’s came out on top 1,827-1,801.

“You get up there bowling the last spot, you want the pressure. That’s why they’ve got me there. To come in with an absolute yank. It’s, uh, extremely disappointing,” Matero said.

But to lay the blame for the loss on Matero would be too easy and wrong. Maine Heat had plenty of chances to seize control of the match but missed an uncountable number of one-pin spare opportunities. Particularly in the second string when either team could have taken charge by stepping up their game to something of a normal level.

In that second string Maine Heat managed just a 550 while Maria’s turned in a 546. Not exactly impressive when considering both teams were capable of so much more.

“We missed a lot,” Matero said. “Winning it here at home, defending it for Charlie and Russ [Nealey], especially Russ with all he’s going through, would have been huge. I think that’s the most disappointing part.”

Nealey has been diagnosed with throat cancer and has begun chemotherapy treatments. The treatments were scheduled around the tournament so that the 60-year-old candlepin hall-of-famer could participate.

“We came too close,” Nealey said. “You’d rather lose by 100 than just a few. We’ll come back next year, but this should have been a different story.”

You’ll get a lot of that from Heat team members. What they could have done or should have done and how it all went up in the smoke.

But mostly you’ll hear how they have a whole year to think about it.

“We’ll talk about this all year,” Charles Milan III said. “It starts as soon as we’re done and we’ll talk about it every day.”

MacLaughlin’s victory in the championship match was set up in the first string when they went ahead of Maria’s by 70 pins and left the team from Scituate, Mass., chasing for the rest of the match. Maria’s tried, bowling 610 and 639 in the final two strings but their 1,827 total was 12 pins short of MacLaughlin’s 1,839.

MacLaughlin’s won $10,000 for the championship while Maria’s took home $5,000. Maine Heat and Park Place/Travel Anywhere out of Haverill, Mass., each won $2,500 for reaching the semifinals.