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BANGOR – Corey Dewitt and the Ellsworth boys basketball team withstood a furious comeback by Mount View to earn an exciting 51-48 victory Friday afternoon in the tourney-opening Eastern Maine Class B quarterfinal.
Dewitt poured in 25 points as the No. 3 Eagles tipped the No. 6 Mustangs of Thorndike. Ellsworth takes on No. 2 Presque Isle in a semifinal Wednesday at 2:05 p.m. The Wildcats beat No. 10 Caribou 47-38 in Friday’s second quarterfinals.
Dewitt did most of his scoring in the first half – as did teammate Demetrios Katsiaficas (16 points) – but hit a key jumper late in the game as did Chris Archer, whose 3-pointer with 2:38 left in the fourth quarter gave the Eagles the edge they would need.
It was Anthony Britt’s rebound that helped seal the win, however.
Ellsworth had a 49-48 lead, which seemed even slimmer after Archer missed two free throws with 20 seconds left. Mount View’s 6-foot-6 center Kyle Tripp rebounded the second miss.
The Mustangs brought the ball down the floor but didn’t get off a shot until Kyle Harvey’s pull-up jumper hit the rim with about four seconds left. Britt grabbed the rebound and sped down the floor for a layup at the buzzer.
Mount View coach Jim Pettis considered calling a timeout, but let his seniors play.
“I said, I’ve got four seniors on the floor. We’ll see what happens,” he said. “I was kind of hoping that shot would go in. … We had a look. We had a chance. And at halftime I wasn’t sure that was the way it was going to be in the second half.”
Dewitt scored 15 points in the first half as the Eagles built a 27-17 halftime lead. He scored Ellsworth’s first seven points of the game.
“I just tried to come out, get my shots, establish myself early, and get my team behind me,” Dewitt said.
Two Katsiaficas free throws extended the lead after halftime, but the Mustangs scored eight unanswered points to get back into the game.
Ellsworth played a mix of defenses, including a 1-3-1 zone designed to stop Tripp, who led Mount View with 12 points.
“I think they caught on to what we were trying to do in the second half and they really capitalized on our mistakes,” Dewitt said.
In the second game, Presque Isle overcame dreadful foul shooting and a spirited Caribou comeback attempt with a steady offensive attack that emphasized ball control and inside scoring.
“That’s exactly what I expected to happen,” said coach Tim Prescott, whose Wildcats improved to 16-3. “Caribou came in off a huge win. They’d lost to us twice in the regular season by double digits, but they had nothing to lose and everything to gain and they weren’t afraid.”
Certainly not in the first nine minutes of the second half, when they outscored Presque Isle 16-7 to make it a five-point game (41-36 PI) with four minutes left. But the Wildcats scored six of the next eight points to end it.
Presque Isle was led by its frontcourt: 6-foot-5 center Chris Coffin (15 points, seven rebounds), 6-5 forward Greg Whitaker (10 points, six rebounds), and 6-2 forward Adam Kingsbury (11 points, four rebounds).
“We knew what we had to do when we came down here,” said Coffin. “We controlled the boards on both ends of the court and we just kept pounding it inside.”
The ‘Cats outrebounded the Vikings 27-23 and outscored them 38-11 in the paint.
“We did what we wanted to do by taking 3-pointers against the zone, but they just killed us on the inside,” said Caribou coach and Presque Isle alumnus Chris Casavant.
Presque Isle committed just eight turnovers to Caribou’s 14.
“They do a tremendous job of running their zone offense and utilizing their height,” said Casavant. “And not many teams play multiple defenses like Presque Isle does.”
Junior forward Caleb Rosser led the 10-10 Vikings with 10 points, nine rebounds, three assists and a steal. Sophomore guard Kyle Corrigan had 12 points.
EAGLES 51, MUSTANGS 48
Mount View (12-8) Ellsworth (14-5)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Keller 0 0 2 2 2 Doe 0 0 0
Price 1 1 1 1 3 Katsiafcs 5 14 5 9 16
Wentwrth 1 4 0 0 2 Jellison 0 2
Carter 3 6 2 2 8 DeWitt 10 18 25
Harvey 4 14 0 0 9 Allen 0 0 0
Miles 1 5 3 4 5 Archer 1 4 3
Haffner 2 8 2 2 6 Britt 2 2 5
Caron 0 0 0 0 0 Karst 0 1 0
Dimick 0 4 1 2 1
Tripp 6 10 0 1 12
Totals 18 52 11 14 48 Totals 18 40 12 19 51
Mount View 8 17 33 48
Ellsworth 15 27 38 51
3-pt. goals – Mount View (1-13): Harvey 1-7, Carter 0-1, Wentworth 0-2, Haffner 0-3; Ellsworth (3-9): Katsiaficas 1-2, DeWitt 1-3, Archer 1-3, Karst 0-1
WILDCATS 47, VIKINGS 38
Caribou (10-10) Presque Isle (16-3)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Corrigan 5 11 2 2 12 York 1 2 2
J.Haines 2 8 0 0 6 Belanger 1 2
Fitzherbert 3 5 0 0 6 Brooker 0 2 0
C.Rosser 4 6 2 4 10 McGlinn 3 10 7
Rossignol 0 1 0 0 0 Kingsbury 2 11
B.Rosser 2 6 0 1 4 Coffin 6 8 15
D.Haines 0 0 0 0 0 Whitaker 4 10
Cheney 0 0 0 0
Totals 16 37 4 7 38 Totals 17 37 12 26 47
Caribou 4 13 27 38
Presque Isle 14 23 34 47
3-pt. goals – Caribou (2-8): J. Haines 2-3, Fitzherbert 0-1, B. Rosser 0-1, Corrigan 0-3; Presque Isle (1-9): Coffin 1-3, Brooker 0-1, McGlinn 0-5
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