BANGOR – For much of the season the Nokomis boys basketball team has relied on seniors Ryan McLellan and Luke Hayden to carry the team.

Friday afternoon at the Bangor Auditorium senior forward Jody Mullis put the team on his back and carried them to a 54-49 win over third-seeded Cony of Augusta in an Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal.

The sixth-seeded Warriors will player the winner of Saturday morning’s game between No. 2 Bangor and seventh-seeded Lawrence of Fairfield on Friday at 7:5 p.m.

Mullis felt he had to step forward. He and the sixth-seeded Warriors of Newport found themselves in a difficult situation with McLellan, their leading scorer, on the bench with his third foul midway through the second period. Hayden followed with his third foul just before the end of the half.

The 6-foot-3 Mullis stepped forward, working the baseline for 15 points, six coming on put backs of missed shots. He had five offensive rebounds.

“I just try to get good position. That’s basically my thing. I try to get offensive rebound put backs,” Mullis said.

McLellan had 14 points, none bigger the two on an eight-foot jumper from the right with 1:39 left. It gave the 14-6 Warriors a 50-48 lead and they held onto the lead down the stretch.

Hayden’s foul trouble may have been a blessing in disguise for the Warriors. It forced Nokomis to change defensive tactics on Cony big man Jac Arbour.

The 6-5 Arbour looked like he might be capable of beating the Warriors by himself. He scored the Rams’ first nine points of the game and had 15 at the half. He finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds but he went long stretches in the second half without touching the ball.

“They put two smaller guys on me. They were doubling me. I had one guy in front of me and one guy behind me. It was harder to get the ball than when [Hayden] was guarding me because he was on my back,” Arbour said.

Ray Vallee added 11 points for 15-4 Cony.

Hayden had 11 points and 10 rebounds for Nokomis.

WARRIORS 54, RAMS 49

Nokomis (14-6) Cony (15-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Rodrigue 2 5 2 2 7 Cameron 0 0 0

McLellan 6 21 0 1 14 Vachon 2 7 7

Bradstreet 2 8 0 0 5 Vallee 4 15 11

Dunlop 0 2 0 0 0 Hunt 0 3 2

McDaniel 0 0 0 0 0 Beaudoin 0 0

Buzanoski 1 1 0 0 2 Dulac 0 0 0

Ellis 0 0 0 0 0 Conrad 1 8 2

Hayden 3 8 5 8 11 Arbour 11 16 23

Mullis 6 7 3 4 15 Cummings 0 0

Normandin 1 3 4

Totals 20 52 10 15 54 19 54 14 49

Nokomis 12 24 37 54

Cony 14 24 37 49

3-pt. goals ? Nokomis (4-14): McLellan 2-7, Rodrigue 1-1, Bradstreet 1-5, Dunlop 0-1; Cony (5-20): Vallee 3-11, Arbour 1-2, Normandin 1-3, Hunt 0-2, Vachon 0-2