BANGOR – Doug Joerss isn’t necessarily an imposing physical presence, but the 6-foot-2 junior forward is fast becoming an imposing basketball presence for the Cony Rams.

Joerss continued his strong play of recent weeks with 29 points and 11 rebounds Friday as sixth-ranked Cony of Augusta opened the Eastern Maine Class A boys basketball tournament with a 72-50 win over third-ranked Messalonskee of Oakland.

The win sends the 15-5 Rams to Friday’s 7:05 p.m. semifinal against the winner of today’s quarterfinal between Brunswick and Mt. Blue of Farmington. Messalonskee, making its first quarterfinal appearance since 1996, finished 15-5.

Cony avenged a 55-48 regular-season loss at Messalonskee by working the ball inside to Joerss and frustrating the Eagles’ perimeter shooters.

Joerss shot 14 of 19 from the field, including 8 of 12 during a 16-point first half that ended with Cony scoring 10 unanswered points to turn an 18-13 deficit into a 23-18 lead.

“It’s Bangor and you try not to be nervous, but it’s hard,” said Joerss. “I just felt like I could knock some shots down. I took some difficult shots, but I made ’em. I really had my confidence out there.”

That halftime lead grew to 35-19 as Cony extended its overall run to 22-1 with a 12-1 blitz over the first three minutes of the third quarter. Joerss had six points early in the period, while Tyler Hunt added a 3-pointer and Craig Cameron set up Chris Carville for a three-point play.

“We just didn’t play very well on team defense,” said Messalonskee coach Tom Hill. “Joerss got anything he wanted inside, and when we made a rotation to try to stop somebody, we didn’t have the backside rotation, and they made the extra pass to get a good shot.”

Joerss produced three key offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter, two leading to 3-pointers by Cameron and Hunt that helped the Rams quell a Messalonskee comeback that had whittled the deficit to 53-44 on a Robert Kendrick free throw with 4:51 to play.

“If we weren’t aggressive and we weren’t physical, we were going to be in trouble,” said Cony coach Bruce Hunt. “We always like to get the ball inside and go inside-outside, and we were able to get Douglas the ball in some pretty good situations in the first half. Once he got the ball inside, it opened the outside and we were able to knock down some perimeter shots.”

Tyler Hunt scored 13 points for Cony, making 3 of 6 3-point tries. He also teamed with Adam Vachon and Cameron to hold Messalonskee to 2 of 16 from beyond the arc – a far cry from the Eagles’ 12-of-23 long-distance assault on Waterville in a preliminary-round victory Wednesday.

Senior guard John Fisher led Messalonskee with 12 points, while Stefan Wrigley added 11 points and nine rebounds.

RAMS 72, EAGLES 50

Cony (15-5) Messalonskee (15-5)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Vachon 0 0 6 8 6 Mattos 0 1 0

Cameron 3 7 1 2 9 Corbett 1 1 3

Hunt 4 12 2 2 13 Crosby 0 0 0 0

Beaudoin 0 5 1 2 1 Wrigley 4 8 11

Joerss 14 19 1 5 29 Beaudoin 2 9

Normandin 0 3 0 0 0 Kam 0 0 0

Whitlock 3 4 0 2 6 Fisher 4 9 12

Stiman 1 2 2 2 5 Kendrick 2 6

Carville 1 1 1 1 3 Kerschner 0 0

Stred 0 1 0 0 0 Hutchinson 2 14 3 3 7

Marczak 0 0 0 0 0 Couture 0 0 0

Evans 0 0 0 0

Gray 1 2 0 2

Lessard 0 0 0 0

Totals 26 54 14 24 72 16 48 14 20 50

Cony 9 23 46 72

Messalonskee 11 18 32 50

3-pt. goals ? Cony (6-16): Hunt 3-6, Cameron 2-3, Stiman 1-1, Stred 0-1, Normandin 0-2, Beaudoin 0-3; Messalonskee (4-21): Fisher 2-6, Beaudoin 1-3, Kendrick 1-5, Gray 0-1, Mattos 0-1, Hutchinson 0-5