Panthers, Bears reach semifinals Pressure defense helps spark wins

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BANGOR – A year ago, neither the Maranacook Black Bears of Readfield nor the Medomak Valley Panthers of Waldoboro were even in the Eastern Maine Class B boys basketball quarterfinals.

The Bears had been upset in the preliminaries and Medomak was handled easily in the Class A prelims.

What a difference a year and (in Medomak’s case) a class change make. Saturday morning, both teams advanced to the semifinals with impressive wins at the Bangor Auditorium.

The top-seeded Bears had to claw from behind and were outrebounded but still eliminated No. 8 Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln 70-62. Fourth-ranked Medomak was shorthanded but trailed just twice in the entire game before posting a 53-42 victory over No. 5 Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield.

The 18-1 Bears take on the 15-5 Panthers in a 3:35 p.m. Wednesday semifinal. The MA Lynx wound up 16-4, while the MCI Huskies finished 15-5.

In the second game, things didn’t start the way the Bears had hoped as the MA Lynx used an aggressive inside game, hot shooting (64.3 percent) from the field and a 12-0 run to take a 23-15 lead in the first quarter.

“They played a man defense in the half-court at the start of the game and we were executing and getting shots we wanted to out of sets,” said MA coach Rick Sinclair. “Then they went to the full-court press, which we can handle, but it took us out of our strength, which is getting the ball inside for better shots.”

The result was fewer points in the paint, a massive drop-off in shooting percentage (to 17.6), and a 13-2 Bears run.

“Our defensive pressure has been really good all year, and it took us awhile to figure out what worked best on them, but we slowed them down with it,” said Bears forward Kevin Leary, who had a double-double off the bench and blocked four shots. “We knew they could really shoot the ball, so we had to close out on their 3s.”

The junior forward had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

“He stepped up big time tonight and had a fantastic game,” said Bears coach Rob Schmidt. “He’s blocked almost 50 shots this season, but his rebounding was a huge bonus for us.”

The Lynx still won the battle of the boards 42-34, but the Bears committed only eight turnovers to MA’s 15, outshot MA 40 to 37.7 percent, and kept the tempo fast to foil MA’s half-court game.

“The guards they have need space to create and with that pressure, if we turn the ball over, their guards are coming down in the open floor,” Sinclair said. “With Poulin and Martin, any space they have is too much.”

Bears sophomore guard Ryan Martin led all scorers with 26 points. Will Bardaglio had 12 points and nine rebounds and Bryce Spalding finished with 10 points. Mike Poulin rounded out a balanced effort with seven points, four rebounds and two assists.

Senior center Levi Slike led the Lynx with a double-double (13 points, 12 rebounds) while sophomore guard Derek Libbey came off the bench to provide 15 points, five boards, three assists and two steals. Steve Andrews chipped in with 12 points and six boards.

In the first game, the Huskies just wouldn’t go away and got as close as three points in the fourth quarter, but Medomak runs of 7-0 and 9-3, the last of which was in the final 1:49 of the game, were too much for MCI to overcome.

“We were able to use our pressure and pick up some steals, and they weren’t really scoring because we were playing some tough defense on them,” said Panthers center Matt MacKenzie, who had 12 points and 10 rebounds. “We knew they liked to crash the boards, so we knew we’d have to put a body on them.”

The emphasis on rebounding and a switch from zone to man-to-man defense paid off for the Panthers as they outrebounded MCI 37-28 and helped force 23 MCI turnovers.

Colin O’Donnell led the Panthers with 15 points and also grabbled seven rebounds. Andrew Ferrier had 10 points, four boards and three assists.

Senior forward Andrew Tracy led MCI with 16 points, six rebounds and two assists.

PANTHERS 53, HUSKIES 42

MCI (15-5) Medomak (15-5)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Nichols 3 15 0 0 8 Ferrier 4 7 10

Hart 1 6 0 0 3 Durkee 1 5 2 4

Trombley 0 0 1 2 1 Schwab 0 0 0

McGrady 0 0 0 0 0 McKnzie 5 13 12

Quint 2 4 5 6 9 Ames 1 3 2

Sobey 0 0 1 2 1 Armstrng 2 11 3 3 7

Tracy 4 13 6 8 16 Benner 1 3 3

Souliere 0 0 2 4 2 C.Blckmn 0 0

Marcoux 1 1 0 1 2 O’Donnell 6 14 0 0 15

Totals 11 39 15 23 42 Totals 20 56 14 53

MCI 10 23 28 42

Medomak Valley 10 21 37 53

3-pt. goals – MCI (5-17): Tracy 2-6, Nichols 2-8, Hart 1-2, Quint 0-1; Medomak Valley (4-9): O’Donnell 3-7, Benner 1-1, Armstrong 0-1

BLACK BEARS 70, LYNX 62

Mattanawcook (16-4) Maranacook (18-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Smith 0 0 0 0 0 Poulin 2 8 7

Brminghm 0 0 0 0 0 Martin 10 20 26

Gardner 2 4 1 2 5 Denbow 0 3 0

Libbey 5 12 2 2 15 Bardaglio 3 10 3 4 12

Andrews 4 14 0 0 12 Palmer 2 6 4

Hanscom 0 2 5 6 5 Leary 4 10 11

Slike 6 13 1 2 13 Spalding 5 10

White 0 0 0 0 0

L’Italien 4 8 0 0 8

Emery 2 8 0 1 4

Totals 23 61 9 13 62 Totals 26 65 12 18 70

Mattanawcook 25 35 47 62

Maranacook 20 39 51 70

3-pt. goals – Mattanawcook (7-15): Andrews 4-9, Libbey 3-5, Emery 0-1; Maranacook (6-15): Bardaglio 3-6, Poulin 1-2, Leary 1-3, Martin 1-4