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BANGOR – The Bangor boys basketball team played to its inside strength Wednesday night, and the reward was a berth in the Eastern Maine Class A tournament.
The No. 7 Rams scored 31 points in the paint and outrebounded Brewer 31-14 to avenge two regular-season losses to the 10th-ranked Witches with a 44-33 victory in preliminary-round play at Red Barry Gymnasium.
“The last time we played them we didn’t get many inside touches and never really worked it inside,” said Bangor junior forward Alex Gallant, who scored a game-high 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field. “We went over post moves a lot in practice, we wanted to get the ball and just make a quick move. When you go quick, there’s less time for them to double-team, so it’s a lot easier that way.”
The win advances coach Roger Reed’s Rams (13-6) to a EM quarterfinal against No. 2 Hampden Academy (15-3) at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Augusta Civic Center. That will be a rematch of a 2005 quarterfinal, when the No. 9 Broncos upended No. 1 Bangor en route to winning the state title.
Bangor held a physical advantage up front over Brewer with the 6-foot-4 Gallant, 6-5 sophomore center Ryan Weston and athletic sophomore swingman Lee Suvlu, but didn’t capitalize on that edge during the regular season.
Bangor committed to its inside game in the third meeting, and after finding early success with Gallant – who scored seven first-quarter points – the Rams rarely settled for outside shots.
“That was a very big point of emphasis,” said Weston, who had 10 points and nine rebounds. “Coach really made the point that he thought we were better inside. He wanted us to work it in there, work hard and try to outrebound and outplay them inside.”
Suvlu finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and the play of the game – grabbing a weak-side offensive rebound and in the same motion slamming the ball through with two hands early in the second quarter.
“Ryan shot it, and coach has been telling me to go to the boards all year for offensive putbacks,” said Suvlu. “The ball came off the rim perfectly, it was right there. I jumped as high as I could and threw it through the hoop.”
Suvlu’s emphatic follow-up ignited the first of two key Bangor runs, this one a 10-0 blitz that gave the Rams a 21-7 lead on a low-post move by Gallant with 4:10 left in the first half.
But Bangor went scoreless for the rest of the second quarter, and a couple of loose possessions helped Brewer creep within 21-13 by intermission.
After the break, the Witches kept coming. Brad Libby sandwiched a medium-range jumper and a 3-pointer around six points from star guard Chris Wilson (16 points) to pull Brewer within 27-24 by the end of the third quarter.
Brewer (9-10) got within 29-27 on a free throw by Brandon Hardy with 7:13 left, but the Witches came up empty on their next few possessions, and Bangor went back inside.
Weston converted a followup shot, and Gallant scored on feeds from Troy Jellison and Suvlu to ignite a 9-0 Bangor run. Billy Zolper followed with a free throw after making a perimeter steal, and Weston took a Suvlu feed in for a layup to extend Bangor’s lead to 38-27 with 2:18 left before Wilson hit a 3-pointer to end Brewer’s 5:48 scoreless drought.
Wilson hit another 3-pointer after Libby stole an inbounds pass, but Bangor made 6 of 7 free throws in the final minute to put the game away.
“[Bangor] did a better job of winning the interior game tonight,” said Brewer coach Mark Reed. “Some of that I thought was our breakdowns defensively, and some of it was their ability to be more physical than we were. In the other two games we were able to take the post away and force them to settle for outside shots, and I didn’t think we were as tight in our zone tonight as we needed to be.”
RAMS 44, WITCHES 33
Brewer (9-10) Bangor (13-6)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Wilson 6 19 2 2 16 Jellison 0 0
Libby 2 5 0 0 5 McAllian 0 0
Stratton 1 3 0 0 3 Suvlu 4 14 10
Hardy 0 1 1 2 1 Gallant 8 13 19
Valley 0 1 0 0 0 Chase 0 0 0
Littlefield 0 0 0 0 0 Mead 0 0 0
Babin 3 11 2 2 8 Weston 5 7 10
Zolper 1 2 3 5
Totals 12 40 5 6 33 Totals 18 43 44
Brewer 4 13 26 33
Bangor 11 21 29 44
3-pt. goals – Brewer (4-18): Wilson 2-11, Libby 1-1, Stratton 1-3, Valley 0-1, Babin 0-2; Bangor (0-4): Jellison 0-1, McAllian 0-1, Zolper 0-1, Suvlu 0-1
Attendance: 1,000 (est.)
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