Dragons win despite losing Mims to fouls Warren shines against Cony

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BANGOR – “Mims Week” ended at the Bangor Auditorium Friday night, but that’s fine with Brunswick’s boys basketball team.

The second-seeded Dragons, who were called Ralph Mims’ team as often or more so than they were called Brunswick, showed they have a few other quality players to go with their star guard as they pulled out a white-knuckle affair against No. 6 Cony of Augusta with a 75-65 Eastern Maine Class semifinal victory at the Bangor Auditorium.

The win puts the 20-1 Dragons in Saturday’s 7 p.m. title game against No. 4 Bangor, a 50-26 winner over No. 1 Oxford Hills of South Paris in Friday’s late game.

Things looked pretty good for Brunswick as the Dragons built a 10-point lead late in the first half, but that was before Mims, the senior standout regarded as arguably the best player in Maine, was called for his third foul with 2:52 left in the half.

When he drew his fourth just 64 seconds into the second half and went back to the bench, Cony fans erupted from their seats with cheers despite an 11-point Brunswick lead. Such is Mims’ ability and respect.

Rather than get down, the Dragons rallied with a 6-0 run and expanded their lead to as much as 17 points in the third.

Cony cut the deficit with a 7-0 run early in the fourth, but the Rams made their big run, ironically, after Mims re-entered the game with 6:46 left. Craig Cameron scored six of his eight points in a two-minute span to fuel a 15-2 run that gave Cony its first lead since the first quarter (63-61 with 3:02 to play).

In the meantime, Mims (11 points, eight rebounds, five assists, three steals) fouled out with 4:17 to go, but again the Dragons adjusted to end a four-minute scoring drought.

Senior center Phil Warren, who never played varsity basketball before this season, led the Dragons’ charge by scoring five straight points and seven of Brunswick’s first 10 in the final quarter as the Dragons attacked Cony’s press by zipping passes to the blocks for lay-ins.

“I just thought about how many times Ralph came through for Brunswick basketball and I told the team we’ve got to come through for him now … At least once,” said the 6-foot-2 Warren, known more for his play on the football field.

Warren finished with 13 points and eight rebounds.

“Phil’s gotten better and better and better … and he played his best tonight, just when we needed him,” said Dragons coach Todd Hanson.

Brunswick used a 9-0 run to retake the lead (70-63) with 51 seconds left and never led by less than five again.

“When we came into the locker room, Ralph came in and said ‘Mims week is over’ because that’s what everybody was calling it,” said Warren.

The Dragons won in spite of Mims, Warren, and Doug Eichinger fouling out (the latter two in the final 30 seconds) as they hit eight of their last 11 foul shots. Conversely, Cony missed missed five of its last eight.

The Rams were hurt by the loss of 6-2 forward Doug Joerss, who was called for a technical with 4:32 left in the third. Joerss (10 points, nine boards) was benched by coach Bruce Hunt the rest of the game.

“It’s my own rule. It’s been my philosophy forever,” said Hunt. “We expect kids to represent Cony High the right way. There was a devil on my shoulder, but it didn’t win out.”

The 15-6 Rams also suffered another big loss when point guard Adam Vachon (eight points, six assists) fouled out with 2:52 to play.

“That was crucial for us because he’s such a good ballhandler and passer,” Hunt said.

Crucial to the Dragons was the elevated play and balanced scoring of guards Jesse Kaplan (17 points, five rebounds, four assists) and Justin Gauvin (14, four, four and two steals) and forward Kevin Scully (14 points, 10 rebounds).

“I’ve said all along we’ve got some pretty good players on our team,” Hanson said. “Everyone looked at Ralph to bail us out and tonight he couldn’t do that, so our kids stepped up big.”

Forward Adam Normandin led Cony with 17 points, seven rebounds, and three blocks.

DRAGONS 75, RAMS 65

Cony (15-6) Brunswick (20-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Cameron 3 8 1 4 8 Lemont 1 1 2

Vachon 2 5 4 4 8 Kaplan 6 12 13 17

Hunt 3 10 0 0 7 Gauvin 4 9 4 14

Beaudoin 3 9 4 6 10 Mims 4 9 11

Stiman 1 2 0 0 3 Scully 4 7 14

Normandin 6 12 3 6 17 Eichinger 1 2

Joerss 3 9 4 6 10 Kelly 1 1 2

Carville 1 3 0 0 2 Warren 6 9 13

Totals 22 58 16 26 65 Totals 27 50 17 28 75

Cony 16 27 44 65

Brunswick 19 40 56 75

3-pt. goals ? Cony (5-18): Normandin 2-5, Stiman 1-2, Hunt 1-3, Cameron 1-5, Beaudoin 0-3; Brunswick (4-8): Gauvin 2-3, Mims 2-5