BANGOR – Things looked grim for the Woodland boys basketball team Monday morning. The fourth-seeded Dragons trailed No. 5 Jonesport-Beals by 12 points with a little more than five minutes to go in their Eastern Maine Class D quarterfinal game.

But Weston Kochendoerfer rallied the Dragons, scoring eight points down the stretch as Woodland pulled off a hard-earned 74-70 win over the Royals.

The 14-6 Dragons will play top-seeded East Grand on Thursday afternoon at 3:35 in the semifinal round.

Chad Pike scored 19 points in the first half but then disappeared from the Woodland offense for much of the second. The Dragons’ strategy changed and they began to get the ball inside to Kochendoerfer, who finished with 18 points.

However, it was Pike who got the comeback really rolling when he pulled the Dragons to within one on a 12-foot jumper.

The Royals watched their lead dwindle from that point as they missed the front end of one-and-one free throw attempts on consecutive trips down the floor.

Meanwhile, Bill Smith nailed a pair of 3-pointers for Woodland to help chip away at the J-B lead.

The Royals also turned the ball over five times in the quarter and surprised Pike when they continued to run their normal offense instead of sitting on the ball.

“I thought they would have held it and made us look bad. They gave us a chance and we pulled through, I guess,” Pike said.

Jesse Nicholson scored 14 points for the Dragons, including a pair of vital free throws with Woodland holding a one-point lead at 67-66. Andrew Scott added 12 points and had seven rebounds and two blocks.

Erik Balchen scored 14 points for Jonesport-Beals, including 10 during the third quarter when the Royals made a run and began to build a lead.

“It looked too good, I guess, apparently, I don’t know,” J-B coach Ordie Alley said. “They made too many threes in a row. They couldn’t miss there for a spell. I saw it coming but couldn’t do anything about it.”

Abraham Beal had 19 points to lead Jonesport-Beals. Ben Durkee hit for 16, primarily on pull up jump shots in the lane.

DRAGONS 74, ROYALS 70

Jonesport-Beals (14-6) Woodland (14-6)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Durkee 7 14 2 5 16 Knowles 0 0 0

A. Beal 7 22 3 5 19 Pike 9 15 21

Dyer 1 1 0 0 2 Smith 2 5 1 7

Berry 1 2 2 2 4 Nicholson 5 10 2 2 14

Balchen 7 10 0 0 14 Moody 0 0 0

Chandler 4 9 0 0 8 Engroff 1 3 2

D. Beal 3 6 1 2 7 Kochndrfr 5 11 7 10 18

Scott 5 7 2 12

Totals 30 64 8 14 70 27 51 12 18 74

Jonesport-Beals 20 32 53 70

Woodland 17 34 48 74

3-pt. goals ? Jonesport-Beals (2-13): A. Beal 2-9, Durkee 0-3, Chandler 0-1; Woodland (8-20): Pike 3-8, Smith 2-3, Nicholson 2-4, Kochendoerfer 1-4, Engroff 0-1