AUGUSTA – Jordan Cook didn’t get the ball as much as the Hampden Academy Broncos would have liked Saturday.

But the 6-foot-10 senior center made the most of the opportunities he got, making 9-of-10 shots from the field and 9-of-9 from the free-throw line to produce a game-high 27 points in No. 2 Hampden’s 68-62 overtime win over No. 7 Bangor.

“Our problem was we weren’t getting him enough quality touches,” said Hampden coach Russ Bartlett, “because they were doing a good job of taking either top man and dropping him down to double-team a lot, and the few times Jordan’s open, we’ve got to make sure he touches the ball.”

Double-teams are nothing new to Cook, particularly from Bangor, which has considerable front-line height of its own in 6-foot-5 Ryan Weston and 6-4 Alex Gallant along with tall guards in Lee Suvlu, Billy Zolper and Jon McAllian.

“We knew they were going to focus on keeping the ball out of the post area,” said Cook, a 1,000-point scorer and 2005 Bangor Daily News All-Maine first-team choice, “so we had to be patient and make adjustments.”

Bangor poised for strong 2006-07

Want an early favorite for the 2007 Eastern Maine Class A title? Gardiner, Mt. Blue, and Cony of Augusta should be among the contenders, but Bangor would appear to be loaded after reaching this year’s quarterfinals led by a strong collection of sophomores and juniors.

“I wouldn’t want to play that Bangor team next year,” said Hampden center Jordan Cook. “They’ve got a lot of young kids that can play. They’re going to be good.”

The Rams were poised to be even better this year until first-team All-Maine guard Mark Socoby went down with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and had to sit out the season.

And while Socoby endured surgery and then began therapy – he was cleared to start jogging last week – the rest of the Bangor squad had to retool without him. Junior Troy Jellison stepped in at point guard and joined classmate Alex Gallant and sophomores Ryan Weston, Lee Suvlu, Jon McAllian, and Billy Zolper as the team’s youthful nucleus.

“This would have been a totally different team had Mark been here, because there’s so many different things we could have done in our attack with him,” said Reed. “But with what happened, we were trying to adjust for most of the season and trying to find answers, and I think we did grow through the process.

“The younger kids really had to show us their true grit really earlier than we expected them to, and I was pleased with the way they did that. They took a big step, most of the kids who are coming back took a big step forward late in the season, and we can build on that.”