Patient Mariners defeat GSA, improve to 12-0

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DEER ISLE – The Deer Isle-Stonington Mariners and their undefeated record took center stage Saturday afternoon. And it took opening the stage at the school’s gym to accommodate the overflow crowd as the Mariners faced George Stevens Academy of nearby Blue Hill.

The production that followed featured a sample of everything that has helped Deer Isle-Stonington get off to a 12-0 start – offensive patience, timely transition offense and stout defense – as the Mariners earned a 64-49 victory.

Junior guard Bryant Ciomei led the Mariners with a game-high 26 points, while senior point guard Brian Billings added 11 points and sophomore center Collin Ciomei scored 10.

The Mariners also came up big defensively, forcing turnovers on the perimeter and successfully defending against a bigger GSA front line.

“We just wanted to stay in front and deny them the ball,” said Collin Ciomei, who teamed with Shane and Jon Eaton up front. “We knew if Sam Bridges got it down low he’s probably going to score, and Collin Henry has a good midrange shot, so we tried to keep them from getting that.”

Caleb Owen paced GSA with 11 points, while Bridges and Phineas Peake scored nine points each. Class D Deer Isle-Stonington had stunned Class C George Stevens by 25 points early in the season, but there was no sense the rematch would be anything but a battle.

GSA (9-3) struck for a 4-0 lead, but after Jon Eaton broke through for DI-S with a follow-up basket, Bryant Ciomei scored 10 straight Mariner points as his team built a 16-7 lead.

“They play a lot of man defense, but they came out zone, which tricked us a little bit,” he said. “We hit those shots at the beginning and that helped a lot. It took a little pressure off our offense and let us get into the flow of the game.”

GSA scored the next seven points to pull within 16-14 by the end of the quarter, but for Deer Isle-Stonington an early assault had been withstood.

“We knew they were going to come at us very hard the first three or four minutes of the ballgame, and we had to withstand that and had to take care of the ball more than anything else,” said Deer Isle-Stonington coach Glenn Billings. “In our practices, on our offensive sets we were just taking care of the ball more than shooting. We didn’t want to have turnovers, because that would fuel what they do.”

The teams were tied 24-24 at halftime before Deer Isle-Stonington broke the game open with a 14-0 third-quarter run good for a 40-28 lead.

“The third quarter we normally come out to play because we really want it, and that’s the time when all our conditioning pays off,” said Brian Billings.

The Mariners forced four GSA turnovers during the run, and scored all of their baskets in transition or after grabbing an offensive rebound.

“We can run the whole game, our starting five can go just about the whole game, so we came after them,” said Bryant Ciomei. “We thought they got tired in that third quarter and it showed a little bit when we got it up and down the court.”

GSA got no closer than seven the rest of the way, initially when Peake closed the gap to 42-35 with a 3-pointer 35 seconds into the fourth quarter. After Billings and Bridges traded baskets, Bryant Ciomei hit the shot that suggested no Eagles’ comeback was in order, a 3-pointer coming out of a Mariner timeout to make it 47-37 with 6:19 to play.

“We opened up the stage today, we knew everybody was coming,” said Bryant Ciomei. “They’ve been talking about this game all week. We usually don’t get it like this until playoffs, but they wanted to see a show, and we put it on.”

MARINERS 64, EAGLES 49

George Stevens (9-3) DI-Stonington (12-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Peake 4 9 0 0 9 C. Ciomei 3 10

Henry 4 7 0 0 8 Billings 5 11

Wessel 1 5 0 0 3 Siebert 0 0 0

Bridges 3 6 3 3 9 J. Eaton 3 6

Gray 2 5 1 2 5 Douglass 0 0 0

Owen 4 15 3 3 11 Brown 2 3 0 4

Smith 0 0 0 0 0 B. Ciomei 6 11 13 26

Gordon 2 3 0 0 4 S. Eaton 2 7

Dow 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 20 51 7 8 49 21 37 19 27 64

George Stevens Acad. 14 24 32 49

Deer Isle-Stonington 16 24 42 64

3-pt. goals – GSA (2-12): Peake 1-2, Wessel 1-3, Henry 0-1, Owen 0-6; Deer Isle-Stonington (3-9): B. Ciomei 3-4, Billings 0-1, C. Ciomei 0-2, S. Eaton 0-2

JV: George Stevens 56-43

Attendance: 1,100 (est.)