BANGOR – Top-ranked Oxford Hills delivered a lesson in how to score off the center jump at the outset of Friday night’s Eastern Maine Class A boys basketball semifinal.

For the rest of the game, however, it was the No. 4 Bangor Rams who presented a clinic in team defense and offensive patience, one that earned coach Roger Reed’s club a resounding 50-26 victory at the Bangor Auditorium.

The win, Bangor’s 12th straight and 15th in its last 16 games, advanced the Rams to a rematch against Brunswick in today’s 7 p.m. regional title game.

Bangor won that matchup 62-48 last year en route to its third state championship in the last four years.

“We’re really starting to mesh together,” said junior guard Aaron Gallant, who led 16-5 Bangor with 23 points. “I remember last year when we started to mesh.

“If you can’t see it, I can sure feel it.”

Oxford Hills (18-2) felt the strength of Bangor’s cohesion soon after taking a 2-0 lead on Matt McDonnell’s layup four seconds into the game.

The Vikings, who defeated Bangor 57-46 on Dec. 30, went scoreless for the next 6 minutes, 27 seconds and trailed 26-8 at halftime.

Bangor’s suffocating man-to-man defense limited Oxford Hills to 14 percent shooting (4-of-29) over the first two periods, while Gallant struck for 10 first-half points of his own.

“When [Bangor] walked in the building tonight, I was standing in the hallway,” said Oxford Hills coach Scott Graffam. “I looked at them and thought ‘Wow, that’s a physically strong team.’

“We need to get the ball up and down and play more of a finesse game, but they took us out of everything we wanted to do offensively.”

The Vikings were hurt by a second-quarter injury suffered by 6-foot-4 senior forward Corey Tielinen.

“He fell down when he was going after a rebound and suffered a hip pointer, and he just couldn’t get any lift after that,” said Graffam.

Tielinen, a Mr. Basketball finalist, had struggled earlier in the game against some strong defense from the 6-0 Gallant, and finished just 1 of 14 from the field for two points.

“He’s a great player,” said Gallant. “He’s a lot bigger, and I was hoping he would shoot from the outside, and he did quite a bit.”

Gallant had no such problems from the perimeter, making two of his three 3-point tries and shooting 9 of 18 from the field overall.

“The guys set some good screens for me tonight, and coach Reed wants every single person to shoot when they’re open,” Gallant said. “So if you’ve got the shot, you’ve got to take it.”

Bangor also finished with a 33-21 rebounding advantage, with senior forward Mike Prentiss grabbing seven boards and junior point guard Jordan Heath grabbing six to lead a balanced assault on the backboards by the Rams.

“We worked on defense all week long,” said Reed. “We just felt we had to do a great job defending and rebounding and I think we did both tonight.”

Heath added 10 points for the Rams, eight in the third quarter, as Bangor extended its lead to 42-19.

Thomas Kothe was Oxford Hills’ top scorer with six points.

“When you’re No. 1, there’s a lot of pressure on you,” said Reed, “and I think maybe my kids came in a little more relaxed tonight.”

RAMS 50, VIKINGS 26

Bangor (16-5) Oxford Hills (18-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Heath 4 10 0 1 10 LaPlante 0 0

Clark 0 2 0 0 0 Powell 2 5 4

Aa. Gallant 9 18 3 3 23 L. Kothe 0 0

Dowe 2 4 0 0 4 McVety 1 3 0 2

Astle 2 5 0 0 5 Saunders 0 0

Conteh 0 0 0 0 0 McDonnell 2 14 0 0 4

Prentiss 1 5 1 2 3 Gilliam 1 2 3

DeRosa 1 4 0 0 2 Decato 0 0 0

St. John 1 4 0 0 3 T. Kothe 3 6

Anderson 0 0 0 0 0 Tielinen 1 14 0 0 2

Trundy 0 0 0 0 0 Fanjoy 0 0 2

Baker 1 1 0 3

Cummings 0 0 0

Totals 20 52 4 6 50 Totals 11 48 26

Bangor 15 26 42 50

Oxford Hills 4 8 19 26

3-pt. goals ? Bangor (6-15): Aa. Gallant 2-3, Heath 2-5, Astle 1-2, St. John 1-2, Clark 0-1, DeRosa 0-2; Oxford Hills (1-11): Baker 1-1, Tielinen 0-3, Powell 0-3, MdDonnell 0-4