BANGOR – The Hampden Academy boys basketball team won its Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal last weekend with its defense.

On Friday night, the ninth-ranked Broncos brought the whole package in handling No. 13 Brewer 55-34 in a regional semifinal at the Bangor Auditorium.

Hampden (17-4) found balance on offense and continued its suffocating defensive ways to earn a berth in Monday night’s Eastern A championship game against No. 2 Oxford Hills of South Paris.

The Broncos have now allowed an average of just 37.3 points per game in postseason victories over Mt. Blue of Farmington in the preliminary round, Bangor in the quarterfinals, and a Brewer team Hampden defeated for the third time this season.

“The past two weeks it’s come together for us, and all of a sudden the whole concept of what we’re trying to do has been grasped,” said Hampden coach Russ Bartlett of his team’s man-to-man set. “It makes us so much better because we don’t have to score 65 points to win. We can keep people in the mid-30s to the mid-40s and we don’t have to score as many points. It takes the pressure off.”

Hampden’s defense on this night was keyed by the guard duo of senior Blaine Meehan and junior J Uhrin.

They were assigned the task of trying to contain Brewer star Chris Wilson, a highly skilled combination of an accurate shooting touch and perpetual motion.

Wilson led the Witches with 14 points, but shot just 4 of 19 from the field thanks to the harassment of Meehan and Uhrin and a defensive strategy of switching when Brewer set screens near the top of the key, often leaving the 6-foot junior face-to-face against 6-10 Hampden center Jordan Cook.

“[Wilson’s] obviously one of the most talented players in the league, and if you give him an open shot, he’s going to knock it down,” said Meehan. “We just tried to follow him as much as we could, and if they gave him a screen, we just had to get a hand in his face.”

Cook denied Brewer any complementary inside offense, asserting himself defensively with five blocked shots to go with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

“With Jordan behind us, he obviously makes shots harder for everyone, because they’re afraid to go to the basket so they’re going to settle for that midrange jump shot, which is one of the hardest shots they can take,” said Meehan.

Meehan and Uhrin each scored 12 points for Hampden, with Uhrin grabbing seven rebounds and the 5-10 Meehan providing the game’s exclamation point with a one-handed fast-break dunk followed by a steal and a layup to give the Broncos a 50-27 lead entering the game’s final minutes.

“Night in and night out Blaine guards the best perimeter player on the other team, and he’s the best defender I’ve seen all year,” said Bartlett. “He’s the last person I’d want to guard me.

“And J is so athletic he can guard multiple people. They give us a really good advantage to be able to go out and jam shooters.”

Sophomore Daniel McCue added seven points and five assists for the Broncos, while senior forward Pat Moran grabbed six rebounds.

Hampden didn’t shoot well in its quarterfinal win over No. 1 Bangor, so the Broncos were challenged to do so at the outset of their semifinal by Brewer’s 2-3 zone defense.

Meehan, Uhrin and senior Josh McNutt each hit a 3-pointer in the opening period, sparking Hampden to a 15-5 lead.

“We didn’t shoot that well against Bangor, so we figured that’s what they’d do and pack it in against Jordan and make us earn the 3s,” Uhrin said. “We just wanted to come out and shoot with confidence, and the shots started to fall.”

Hampden’s lead was 26-11 by intermission as the Broncos limited Brewer to 17 percent shooting (4 of 24) from the field in the first half.

When Brewer switched to man-to-man defense after the break, Hampden immediately went inside to Cook. He scored six straight points to open the third quarter, on a post-up move, a dunk, and a tip-in, to push the Broncos’ advantage to 32-11.

“We’re just coming out hard every night, trying to get things done, especially defensively,” said Uhrin. “Because that’s how you win championships.”

BRONCOS 55, WITCHES 34

Brewer (11-10) Hampden Acad. (17-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Wilson 4 19 4 5 14 Ross 0 0 0

Macomber 1 1 0 0 2 Meehan 4 8 12

Davis 0 4 0 0 0 McNutt 1 6 3

Libby 0 0 0 0 0 Uhrin 5 7 12

Bell 1 8 2 3 5 Evans 0 0 0 0

Hardy 1 2 0 0 2 McCue 1 6 7

Stratton 0 0 0 0 0 Hodgdon 0 1 0

Francis 2 6 0 0 4 Farley 1 1 3

MacDonald 1 5 0 0 3 Silver 1 1 2

Babin 2 5 0 0 4 Cook 7 13 14

Aurelio 0 0 0 0

Moran 1 3 0 2

Totals 12 50 6 8 34 21 46 11 55

Brewer 5 11 22 34

Hampden Acad. 15 26 39 55

3-pt. goals – Brewer (4-17): Wilson 2-10, MacDonald 1-1, Bell 1-4, Davis 0-2; Hampden Acad. (6-10): Uhrin 2-2, Meehan 1-1, Farley 1-1, McNutt 1-2, McCue 1-4