BANGOR – Before the Eastern Maine Class D basketball tournament began, Bangor Christian coach Gary Colson said he thought this tourney would be more enjoyable for his defending regional champions.

Not that last year’s run to the program’s first regional hoops title in 23 years wasn’t fun, but the loss of starting guard David Chrisos, who was hospitalized in a coma after an auto accident and missed the postseason, and the pressure of being a high seed (No. 2) had the team under a lot of stress.

This year, the Patriots were back with Chrisos, and the pressure wasn’t as bad as they came in as a seventh seed.

The Patriots also are going back to the state championship game after beating top-seeded East Grand of Danforth 61-49 in Saturday’s regional title game at the Bangor Auditorium.

The 18-4 Patriots will return to the Bangor Auditorium and take on six-time Western Maine and five-time defending state champ Valley of Bingham in a rematch of last year’s state final at 9:30 p.m. Thursday. The Vikings finished their season 19-3.

After a stalemated first quarter, the Patriots turned a 10-10 tie into a 32-14 halftime lead by canning 9-of-17 shots and committing no turnovers while helping force six by East Grand. The Pats didn’t have a single turnover in the half.

“Wow, that’s something,” said East Grand coach Troy Cilley. “Maybe we should have pressed them more.”

The Vikings did press more in the second half, particularly late in the third quarter and all of the fourth period, to turn what looked like a runaway in the second and third quarters into a nail-biter with just more than three minutes left in the game.

The Pats led by 21 with 5:12 left in the third before an 8-0 Vikes run got EG back in BC’s neighborhood. Just after a D.J. McCleary layup made it 48-30 BC with 7:05 left in the game, Vikings super sub Chris Irish hit back-to-back 3-pointers to steal some momentum. Star guard Darius Parker then took over and hit four straight EG baskets to pull the Vikings within 50-44 with 3:06 left.

The rattled Pats regrouped as Greg Patterson found Eric Sobey in the low post with a lob pass to spark a 7-0 Pats run that helped BC fans breathe easier.

“We knew they’d come back because they have this whole tournament,” said Chrisos, who had 10 points, three assists, and a blocked shot. “We just tried to hang on and get a couple baskets to get the momentum back.”

With a nine-point deficit and 1:14 to play, EG had to foul. The Pats missed their first two 1-and-1s, but then hit 4-of-6 in the final minute to stem the Vikings’ assault. Five players scored for BC in the final 21/2 minutes.

Junior guard Josh Madden led BC with a game-high 18 points plus six rebounds despite sitting out the last three minutes of the third quarter and the first two minutes of the fourth with three fouls.

Patterson had a great overall performance for BC with 14 points, nine boards, six assists, two steals, and two blocked shots.

“We moved Greg down underneath. I didn’t know if it was a good move or not, but he just rebounded like a fool today,” said BC coach Gary Colson.

He also helped Madden, Chrisos, Ben Sobey, Eric Sobey, and McCleary keep tabs on Parker (15 points, six boards) in BC’s 3-2 zone defense.

“What Darius basically does is get most of his points on the left side of the floor, so we tried to force him right and get him away from where he’s comfortable,” Patterson explained.

Despite a 10-point, 11-rebound effort from Matt Scott, 13 points and 10 boards from Richard Byers, and a rebounding edge of 24-10 offensively and 45-33 overall, the Vikings couldn’t overcome BC’s shooting edge (43.6 percent to 26.2 percent).

PATRIOTS 61, VIKINGS 49

Bangor Christian (18-4) East Grand (19-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Madden 7 16 1 3 18 S. Preston 0 0

B. Sobey 3 5 1 2 7 Scott 3 9 10

Patterson 5 9 3 4 14 E.Hanington 1 2

Chrisos 4 18 1 2 10 Irish 2 6 6

E. Sobey 3 4 1 2 8 Parker 5 21 15

McCleary 2 3 0 0 4 Faulkner 1 10 1 2 3

R. Byers 5 14 13

Totals 24 55 7 13 61 Totals 17 65 11 12 49

Bangor Christian 10 32 43 61

East Grand 10 14 28 49

3-pt. goals: Bangor Christian (6-17): Madden 3-6, E. Sobey 1-1, Patterson 1-2, Chrisos 1-8; East Grand (4-14): Irish 2-4, R. Byers 1-3, Parker 1-6, Preston 0-1