Rams face challenge in tourney Six ‘A’ boys prelim games set tonight

Bangor High is the reigning Class A boys basketball state champion, yet Rams coach Roger Reed looks elsewhere when asked to project the favorites among this year’s Eastern Maine field that begins postseason play tonight with six preliminary-round games.

“Obviously you’ve got to look at the two top teams,” said Reed, whose fourth-seeded Rams (13-5) will host No. 13 Morse of Bath (9-9) in a 6:30 p.m. start at Red Barry Gymnasium. “When you look at the whole field, Brunswick and Oxford Hills have got some advantages over everyone else.

“But in a tournament when one loss means you’re out, strange things can happen.”

Other prelims tonight have No. 5 Old Town (12-6) hosting No. 12 Mount Ararat of Topsham (11-7), No. 7 Brewer (12-6) at home against No. 10 Mt. Blue of Farmington (12-6), No. 11 Hampden Academy (8-10) at No. 6 Cony of Augusta (13-5), No. 9 John Bapst of Bangor (7-11) at No. 8 Lawrence of Fairfield (12-6), and No. 3 Messalonskee of Oakland (14-4) at home against No. 14 Waterville (4-14).

Bangor’s run to the 2003 title provides ample evidence of the unpredictability of postseason play, given the Rams’ ability to contain Brunswick star Ralph Mims and upset the heavily favored Dragons in last year’s EM final, followed by an overtime win over Cheverus of Portland in the state championship game.

But this year’s team has a different makeup, particularly with juniors Jordan Heath and Aaron Gallant stepping into the limelight after playing supporting roles in 2003.

Heath has had the biggest adjustment to make, from shooting guard to point guard.

“Jordan’s done a good job,” said Reed, whose Rams have won three state titles in the last four years, six in the last 11 seasons. “There were some growing pains that we all went through. Jordan not only had to adjust to playing point guard, but he also has had to guard some of the best players on the other team every night, which is not easy.”

In recent games, Heath has added scoring to his ball-distribution role. He scored 23 points in a win at Waterville, and followed that up with 18 points in a victory over Nokomis of Newport – each of those performances featuring six 3-point goals.

And when the Rams closed out their regular season with a 41-39 win against Mt. Blue, it was Heath hitting a 3-pointer at the buzzer to turn defeat into victory.

“They missed a free throw, and Jordan made a hard push the other way because there was only 5.8 seconds left,” said Reed. “The shot was defended as well as you could defend it, the kid was right on the shot, but Jordan stepped up and made it.”

That win was the 12th in 13 games for Bangor after a sluggish 1-4 start while the Rams redefined roles within the team.

What has emerged is a fairly deep squad, particularly on the perimeter where Heath and Gallant, the team’s leading scorer, have been aided by senior Chad Astle and juniors Anthony DeRosa and Jesse St. John. Up front, the Rams are led seniors P.J. Dowe and Mike Prentiss and junior Andrew Trundy.

“Our keys will be defense, taking care of the ball, and rebounding,” said Reed.

Tourney attendance up slightly

Final attendance figures for the 2004 Eastern Maine Classes B, C and D tournament show an increase of 770 fans over the 2003 totals.

Attendance for this year’s event was 38,468, compared to 37,698 for last year’s tourney.

That increase stemmed from an increase of 1,700 for the Class C games, 13,505 this year compared with 11,805 a year ago.

Attendance for Class B and Class D games fell slightly. Class B was down 447, from 12,742 in 2003 to 12,295 this year. Class D attendance fell by 483, from 13,151 in 2003 to 12,668 in 2004.

This year marked the first time the Eastern Maine tournament has featured two boys games or two girls games in each quarterfinal and semifinal session, rather than sessions with alternating girls and boys games that were the norm in previous years.

Of the nine sessions that drew more than 2,000 spectators this year, seven were sessions featuring two boys games, one had two girls games, and the ninth was the afternoon session of Championship Saturday that involved the Class B boys and girls finals.

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net