Broncs to battle Cougars Hampden seeks Bangor rematch

The Hampden Academy boys basketball team had a strong regular season, so strong it compiled the fourth-best record in Eastern Maine Class A.

The reward for that 14-4 finish? A preliminary-round road game at Mt. Blue of Farmington tonight for the right to advance to the quarterfinals at the Bangor Auditorium.

And if the No. 9 Broncos defeat No. 8 Mt. Blue? Then comes a date against top-seeded Bangor, which already owns three victories over Hampden this season.

“Obviously we would have preferred to play a home game,” said Hampden coach Russ Bartlett.

That hope apparently was dashed late in the regular season, Bartlett said, when Gardiner defeated Cony of Augusta to vault ahead of Cony, Mt. Blue and Hampden and into sixth place. That slid Hampden from eighth to ninth.

“We thought we were going to be hosting Gardiner, and then they went from that to a home game,” Bartlett said.

Hampden, one of three Big East Class A boys teams that qualified for postseason play, was a victim of the lack of depth within the conference this season, as well as a relatively weak nonconference schedule against teams from the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.

In their KVAC matchups, the Broncos did gain a pointworthy win over No. 5 Lewiston, but lost to defending EM champion and No. 3 Brunswick in its other interconference game that would have helped in the Heal point ratings.

Hampden’s other KVAC games were victories over 6-12 Edward Little of Auburn, and Morse of Bath and Mount Ararat of Topsham, two teams with a combined record of 1-35.

The Broncos are led by 6-foot-10 junior center Jordan Cook, who averaged about 20 points and 10 rebounds a game during the regular season, and had 21 points and 16 rebounds and 23 points and 15 rebounds in his last two games. Josh McNutt has been another consistent performer for Hampden, while guards Blaine Meehan and Jay Uhrin have come on strong late in the season.

“We feel like we’re playing pretty well,” Bartlett said. “Hopefully we’re peaking at the right time.”

No. 13 Brewer also earned a road playoff game after its 9-9 regular season. Coach Mark Reed’s Witches travel to Oakland to face No. 4 Messalonskee (13-5) in a scheduled 6:30 p.m. start.

“I think we’ve been playing pretty consistent for the last five or six games,” said Reed, whose team is led by junior guard Chris Wilson and senior guard Isaac Bell. “I’ve been pretty pleased. I feel like we’ll be a tough draw for anybody.”

Coach Tom Hill’s Messalonskee club is led by second-team All-KVAC selection Robert Kendrick. The Eagles went 8-1 at home during the regular season.

“I’m sure they have a lot of confidence after the season they’ve had in terms of wins and losses,” Reed said.

Other Class A boys’ prelims have No. 10 Lawrence of Fairfield (9-9) at No. 7 Cony of Augusta (11-7), No. 11 Skowhegan (8-10) at No. 6 Gardiner (12-6), No. 12 Leavitt of Turner Center (9-9) at No. 5 Lewiston (11-7) and No. 14 Medomak Valley of Waldoboro (8-10) at No. 3 Brunswick (17-1).

No. 1 Bangor (17-1) and No. 2 Oxford Hills of South Paris drew byes to the quarterfinals. Bangor will take a 13-game winning streak into its quarterfinal against the Hampden Academy-Mt. Blue winner at 3:35 p.m. Saturday. Bangor defeated Mt. Blue 54-45 at Farmington on Feb. 12 in their only meeting this season. Oxford Hills (15-3) will play the Cony-Lawrence survivor at 11:05 a.m. Saturday.