PORTLAND – Many of the younger Portland High basketball fans lingered around the Cumberland County Civic Center long after the end of Saturday night’s Class A state championship game.

They were celebrating the Bulldogs’ dramatic 69-63 overtime victory over Brunswick, earning Portland its first state title since 1999.

They also were waiting for an autograph, not from one of their own heroes, but from Maine’s newest basketball legend, Brunswick guard Ralph Mims. The 6-foot-3 senior electrified a crowd of nearly 6,000 with a record-setting 46-point performance that nearly carried the Dragons to their second state championship in three years.

But a more balanced Portland team persevered, riding the 28-point, 16-rebound brilliance of senior forward Rocco Toppi and the late-game heroics of senior point guard Eric Shone to a victory that left even the vanquished with a modicum of satisfaction.

“They were bigger than us, stronger than us, more athletic than us at four of the five positions,” said Brunswick coach Todd Hanson. “But our kids fought and gave us a terrific performance against a great team.”

Shone forced overtime, converting a steal into a layup with 55 seconds left to rally Portland to a 56-56 tie.

Toppi and Brunswick’s Kevin Scully exchanged three-point plays early in overtime, but as Brunswick went scoreless for a 2-minute, 24-second span, Eric Nelson and Shone each hit a free throw around a Toppi tip-in as Portland took a 63-59 lead. Mims pulled up to make a 27-foot 3-pointer with 32 seconds left, but Shone calmly answered with four straight game-clinching free throws.

“In that situation, everyone on the team wants to be in that position, but I think I want it more than anybody,” said Shone, who scored 13 points. “I want the ball and I want to be the one to knock down those free throws.”

Portland, which defeated its regular-season foes by an average of 33 points and its Western Maine tourney opponents by nearly 19 points an outing, needed every ounce of depth and balance to overcome Mims’ talent and will to win.

The heavily recruited Division I prospect shredded a multitude of Portland defenses, making 18 of 31 field-goal tries and 7 of 11 free-throw attempts to break the Class A state final record of 43 points set by South Portland’s John Wassenbergh against Bangor in 1992’s epic five-overtime final.

“I have no regrets,” said Mims. “You want to win, but I left everything I had on the court. When you leave everything that you’ve got on the court, you have no regrets.”

Mims scored 15 of his team’s 17 points in the first quarter, and all 12 of Brunswick’s fourth-quarter points. Mims faced taller defenders, double-teams, even triple-teams, but little could stop him from giving the Dragons a chance.

“Ralph is amazing,” said Portland coach Joe Russo. “We were glad to have the chance to play against Brunswick, but it was tough. We doubled him, ran-and-jumped him, triple-teamed him and he was still scoring at will. We had several different game plans, and we tried them all, and none of them worked.

“But by trying different things, we thought we might wear them down. I think in the end of the fourth quarter and overtime, Ralph didn’t get the ball quite as much. I think he was exhausted. In that sense it did work, it just took quite a while.”

Toppi, like Mims a finalist for the state’s Mr. Basketball award, nearly matched Mims’ effort, albeit in a slightly more subtle way. He scored 19 points after intermission and seven in overtime – including the 1,000th of his career.

“We knew Ralph was going to take his shots and get his points,” Toppi said. “We just tried to stay focused as a team and work the ball around and do our thing on offense and try not to get caught up in what he was doing.”

Junior center Tyler Emmons added 12 points and 13 rebounds for Portland, which used a 44-25 rebounding advantage and 25 Brunswick turnovers to gain 23 more field-goal tries.

“Bigger, stronger, faster,” said Hanson of Portland. “That was the bottom line.”

Brunswick (20-2) was fortunate to be within 29-26 at halftime as Portland commandeered the backboards for 20 offensive rebounds but shot just 9 of 42 from the field.

The Dragons switched defenses at the break, and that forced Portland to the perimeter, where the Bulldogs couldn’t capitalize on their size advantage.

“We really switched to our 3-2 zone because of foul trouble,” Hanson said. “I was stubborn to think we could play man-to man-defense and keep them off the boards, and we didn’t do much of a job of that in the first half. But switching to the zone really turned the momentum back toward us by limiting their second shots.”

Brunswick outscored Portland 12-3 over the final 4:30 of the third quarter to take a 44-37 lead. While the Bulldogs were limited to a Toppi 3-pointer, Brunswick got a pair of baskets from sophomore Doug Eichinger and a free throw by Scully to go with seven points by Mims, including a pull-up jumper with six seconds left in the period.

“We stood toe to toe with Portland,” Hanson said, “and for 31 minutes and 15 seconds we were as good or better than they were, but they have senior leaders, they’re big and strong and deep, and I tip my hat to them. They really did what they had to do down the stretch.”

BULLDOGS 69, DRAGONS 63 (OT)

Brunswick (20-2) Portland (21-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Lemont 0 0 0 0 0 Brownlee 0 3

Kaplan 0 2 0 0 0 Shone 4 17 13

Gauvin 1 3 0 0 2 Murphy 2 6 7

Mims 18 31 7 11 46 Johnston 1 8 3

Scully 3 7 2 4 8 Emmons 4 15 12

Eichinger 2 4 0 0 4 Toppi 9 22 28

Warren 1 3 1 2 3 Berry 0 0 0

Bol 1 3 0 2

Nelson 0 0 1 1

Totals 25 50 10 17 63 Totals 21 73 21 28 69

Brunswick 17 26 44 56 63

Portland 11 29 37 56 69

3-pt. goals ? Brunswick (3-10): Mims 3-10; Portland (6-26): Toppi 3-11, Murphy 2-5, Johnstone 1-4, Brownlee 0-1, Shone 0-1, Emmons 0-4