BANGOR – You could almost sense the relief among the members of the Oxford Hills boys basketball team as the Vikings walked off the Bangor Auditorium court after their Eastern Maine Class A semifinal Friday night.

After three years of struggles at the Auditorium, Oxford Hills got exactly what it needed, including a big game out of senior guard Matt McDonnell and a fine defensive effort, in a 55-39 victory which puts the Vikings in Monday’s 8:45 p.m. Eastern Maine final.

McDonnell, the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A Player of the Year, scored 23 points to go with nine rebounds.

“There was no question, we needed a game up here like this,” Oxford Hills coach Scott Graffam said. “… This particular group of kids has had a hard time, and to come out and have McDonnell play that way … he really took our team on his shoulders tonight.”

The Vikings of South Paris are going for their first Eastern Maine title and first regional crown since 1990, when Graffam led the squad to the Western Maine Class A championship.

The Vikings, now 17-3, will face No. 9 Hampden, which beat No. 13 Brewer 55-34 in Friday’s second semifinal.

Gardiner beat Oxford Hills 65-58 in the regular season.

Oxford Hills has traditionally struggled at the Bangor Auditorium, including last Saturday’s 30-26 quarterfinal win over Cony of Augusta. But the Vikings jumped out to a big lead and went on a 16-0 run in the first half.

Oxford Hills came out firing from the perimeter, hitting five of their first 12 3-point attempts. Four different Viking players each had one in the first half and McDonnell went 3-for-6 en route to 11 points before halftime.

“We’ve shot very poorly the last three years here and tonight we just pulled it together,” McDonnell said. “This was it.”

Gardiner had five turnovers in the second quarter, and Oxford Hills’ ability to convert was a big key to the run.

Tigers coach Dana Doran said his young team got nervous.

“The nerves and the anxiety had an impact in the first half,” he said. “I don’t think we ever recovered from that.”

The Tigers (14-7) had several chances to get back into the game, including an 8-0 run that started immediately after Oxford Hills’ 16-0 stretch. That cut the lead to nine points with 3:43 left in the second quarter, but Josh Powell hit a 3-pointer as the Vikings went back up by 12.

Gardiner cut the lead again to nine points several times, but just couldn’t make enough of a run to get back into it.

“I think [in the second half] we were so concerned with taking care of the ball and not giving up those offensive rebounds that we just didn’t click and didn’t make shots,” Doran said.

Oxford Hills did an effective job double-teaming 6-foot-7 Gardiner center Sean McNally. That’s how Graffam sees going at Hampden’s 6-9 center, Jordan Cook.

“We worked all week on making sure we got two guys, 21/2 guys to McNally all the time,” he said before the second semifinal. “… If Hampden does win, we can just defend the same way.”

McNally led the Tigers with 14 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.

VIKINGS 55, TIGERS 39

Gardiner (14-7) Oxford Hills (17-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Stilphen 2 5 3 4 8 McVety 1 1 2

Kelley 2 7 1 2 5 L. Kothe 1 2

Temple 0 1 0 0 0 Foley 0 0 0

McNally 5 13 4 6 14 Powell 1 1 7

Collins 2 12 3 4 9 Decato 0 4 2

Kallman 0 0 0 0 0 Saunders 3 10 3 7 10

Breton 0 1 0 0 0 McDonnell 8 18 4 4 23

Lavallee 0 0 0 0 0 Cash 0 0 0

Brown 0 0 0 0 0 T. Kothe 2 6

Toulouse 1 5 1 2 3 Ryerson 1 2 3

Totals 12 44 12 18 39 Totals 17 50 15 25 55

Gardiner 8 17 28 39

Oxford Hills 15 28 37 55

3-pt. goals – Gardiner (3-17): Collins 2-6, Stilphen 1-3, Kelley 0-1, Temple 0-1, McNally 0-6; Oxford Hills (6-23): McDonnell 3-7, Ryerson 1-1, Powell 1-1, Saunders 1-5, L. Kothe 0-1, Decato 0-3, T. Kothe 0-5