When Norris Nickerson pulled to the front entrance of the Bangor Auditorium Saturday, the Eastern Maine Class A basketball tournament director was pleasantly surprised by what he saw.

It was about 12:20 p.m. – a good three hours before the girls Class A state championship game was to start – and already there were lines out the door for tickets.

Not only did that mean good crowds at Saturday’s games, but it also meant fans were able to purchase tickets. That’s been a concern the past two years, and officials were hoping that this season’s experiment with split sessions – the girls played at 3 p.m. Saturday, the boys played at 7 p.m. – would solve that problem.

“It went super. Of course, I’m a little biased,” joked Nickerson, who is also the principal of Bangor High, whose boys team won its state championship game against Cheverus of Portland.

The Maine Principals’ Association voted last year to try separate sessions for the state games because tickets have been so hard to come by for the Class A games. The 2000 and 2001 games were sold out in advance and fans were upset they couldn’t purchase tickets at the door.

The experiment will likely continue next season with one change – the MPA may switch the times so that the boys play in the afternoon and the girls play at night. The 2004 Class A state games will be held at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland.

Paid attendance for the girls game between Nokomis of Newport and McAuley of Portland was about 3,000 spectators, Nickerson said. The boys game between Bangor and Cheverus drew about 3,700. Nickerson estimated about 500 more people per session who were participants, band members, cheerleaders, and other spectators.

The Auditorium seats about 5,500.

Playing the girls’ state championship game in the afternoon instead of the evening didn’t lend it any less of an aura, Nickerson said.

“We had good crowds for both games,” he said. “Nokomis always has a fantastic crowd, McAuley [a private school] was a bit smaller, but it had the same feel.”

The best thing about the split sessions, according to Nickerson? That crush of people moving in and out of the Auditorium that frequently occurs when games are just 15 or 20 minutes apart was alleviated.

Nickerson said the overall paid attendance figure for the Class A tournament was up from last year. About 26,000 people watched Class A games at the Auditorium this March, which is about 8,000 more than previous seasons.

The increase likely has to do with the teams involved deep into the tourney, Nickerson said. Teams like Nokomis, which had both boys and girls at least through the semifinals, and Bangor, always draw big crowds, he added. The numbers for the Friday afternoon quarterfinals were down again, Nickerson said, but that’s to be expected as teams from South Paris, Skowhegan and Augusta played that day.

Nickerson will report on the tournament at an upcoming meeting of the MPA basketball committee.

McAuley shines for WM

In addition to another gold ball, the McAuley girls basketball team’s 50-39 victory over Nokomis in Saturday’s Class A state final could be seen as a point of pride for its region, too.

The Lions’ win was the first time since 1985-86 that a Western Maine team won two state titles in a row. Portland and South Portland won in 1985 and 1986, respectively.

McAuley is also the first WM team to repeat since Portland did it in 1984 and 1985, and the first Western Maine squad to win at the Bangor Auditorium since Portland in 1985.

Big East all-star games Tuesday

The Big East Conference will hold its senior all-star games tonight at Old Town High School.

The girls game will start at 6 p.m. and the boys will follow at 7:30. Both games will pit the Class A all-stars against the Class B standouts.

Nokomis of Newport coach Earl Anderson and Presque Isle’s Jeff Hudson will skipper the Class A girls. The team members are: Carolyn McAvoy and Rachel Wing of Brewer, Emmy Russell of Hampden, John Bapst of Bangor’s Stacy Allen, Old Town’s Renee Thibodeau, Billi Blanchard of Presque Isle, and Nokomis standouts Danielle Clark, Sara Lowe, Michelle Murray and Lindsey Welch.

They will face the Class B stars, who will be coached by Burt Barker of MDI and Jeff Jose of Caribou. The team members are Jessica Taylor of Bucksport, Leah Drew of Caribou, Jessica Wiggin of Hermon, Houlton’s Kasey Cleary, Jessica Wagner of Orono, Fort Kent’s McKenzie Boucher and Meaghan Minzy, and Bracey Barker, Shelley Gott and Kara Horton of MDI.

Bangor coach Roger Reed and his son, Mark, who coaches Brewer, will head up the Class A boys’ squad. The team members are Wes Day and Zac Ray from Bangor, Brewer’s Jon Bell, J.T. Breindel and Chad Gomm, Ben Keller of Hampden, Luke Hayden and Ryan McLellan of Nokomis, Kevin Emerson of Old Town, and Presque Isle’s Fred Bird and Kyle James.

The Class B coaches are Foxcroft’s Dave Carey and Wilton Jones of MDI. Their team will be made up of Bucksport’s Jordan Wingate, Caribou’s Josh Nadeau, Dustin Nadeau of Fort Kent, Danny White of Foxcroft, Hermon’s Ron Lane, Adam Porter and Joey Schacht, MDI’s Kyle Jones and Jake King, and Orono stars Justin Perron, John Saucier, and Mike Socoby.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.