BANGOR – Foxcroft Academy flirted with an early exit from the Eastern Maine Class B boys basketball tournament Friday night, trailing No. 10 Mount View of Thorndike by two points early in the fourth quarter of their quarterfinal.

But Kyle Rideout would have none of it.

The 6-foot-4 senior center had 29 points and 15 rebounds – including 14 points and seven rebounds in the fourth quarter alone – as the No. 2 Ponies held off the Mustangs 59-47 at the Bangor Auditorium.

“Not too many teams score that many points against us inside, but [Foxcroft] earned them,” said Mount View coach Jim Pettis. “I knew Rideout would be a tough matchup, and he was the one we definitely had the most trouble with.”

Rideout scored six straight points to help the Ponies turn that 36-34 deficit into a 41-38 lead with 4:55 left.

Then senior guard Bobby Gilbert fronted an aggressive trapping defense that forced three Mount View turnovers in four possessions, resulting in a three-point play and a drive by Gilbert and a post-up basket by Rideout to give Foxcroft a 48-40 cushion with 3:34 to play.

“We had our backs against the ropes so we were trying to get a few steals,” said Gilbert, who finished with 12 points. We just pumped it up and played with a little more adrenaline, even when our legs were tired.”

Foxcroft (17-2) will play defending state champion and No. 3 seed Erskine Academy of South China (17-2) in a 7:05 p.m. semifinal Wednesday.

Mount View, which got 12 points and 15 rebounds from 6-6 junior center Kyle Tripp to go with 12 points from Kyle Harvey and 11 from Steve Miles, finishes 11-9.

“The key was in the fourth quarter I had a bunch of seniors who have been through this before and didn’t want to go out,” said Foxcroft coach David Carey. “The intensity level rose, it was like we had six or seven guys out there. Guys who have felt that pit in their stomachs before said no way, not this time.”

Both teams played through hardship. Mount View was just 48 hours removed from a triple-overtime survival of Maranacook of Readfield in the preliminary round that earned the Mustangs their ticket to Bangor.

And Foxcroft played most of the first half without 1,000-point scorer Matt Carey, who picked up three fouls in the first 3:43 of the game.

But the Ponies got a boost off the bench from junior Shayne Croan (five points, three rebounds and two steals in the half) and held a 25-21 halftime lead.

Mount View took its 36-34 lead – its first edge since 2-0 – when Tripp hit a follow-up shot 13 seconds into the final quarter.

Then Rideout went to work.

“Honestly, it was fun,” he said. “We were down and it put the pressure on us, but it showed what we were made of.”

PONIES 59, MUSTANGS 47

Mount View (11-9) Foxcroft Acad. (17-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Bennett 0 0 0 0 0 Cynewski 1 5

Price 0 0 0 0 0 McKusick 0 0

S. Miles 4 9 1 2 11 Prescott 0 2

Mattson 0 0 0 0 0 Tirrell 0 0 0

Ward 2 9 2 4 6 LaCasce 0 0 0 0

Harvey 4 15 2 2 12 Berce 0 0 0

Light 1 2 1 3 3 Carey 1 5 6

Wentworth 0 4 0 0 0 Croan 2 3 5

Caron 0 2 0 0 0 Gilbert 5 13 12

T. Miles 0 0 0 0 0 Geiger 0 0 0

Dimick 0 0 0 0 0 Rideout 10 15 15 29

Maguire 1 4 1 2 3

Tripp 5 8 2 2 12

Haffner 0 0 0 0 0

Carter 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 17 53 9 15 47 Totals 19 39 20 37 59

Mount View 12 21 33 47

Foxcroft Academy 16 25 34 59

3-pt. goals – Mount View (4-19): S. Miles 2-6, Harvey 2-9, Light 0-1, Wentworth 0-1, Caron 0-2; Foxcroft Academy (1-9): Cynewski 1-2, Carey 0-3, Gilbert 0-4