AUGUSTA – The Hampden Academy boys basketball team is serious about regaining the Class A state championship.

Very serious.

The second-ranked Broncos dominated No. 3 Gardiner in their regional semifinal Wednesday night, using a 24-point, 18-rebound effort from Mr. Basketball finalist Jordan Cook and relentless man-to-man defense to whip the Tigers 55-38 at the Augusta Civic Center.

“That 32 minutes was some of the best basketball we’ve played all year,” said Hampden guard J Uhrin, who added 16 points on 7 of 9 shooting.

Hampden (17-3) faces No. 1 Brunswick (18-2), a 49-39 winner Wednesday night over No. 5 Messalonskee of Oakland, for the EM title at 7 p.m. Friday.

In the semifinal, the 6-foot-10 Cook won the battle of the big men against 6-8 Gardiner junior Sean McNally, who was limited to 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting after drawing two fouls while guarding Cook midway through the first quarter.

By that time, Cook was just starting to find his shooting touch, and was getting plenty of chances as Hampden was determined to work its inside game. After a 1-for-7 start, he made 6 of his next 8 shots en route to a 14-point first half that helped the Broncos to a 28-17 lead.

Hampden had lost an 11-point halftime lead in a 61-52 regular-season loss at Gardiner on Dec. 30, but there would be none of that on this night.

“We played pretty well tonight, especially on the defensive end,” said Cook, who also blocked five shots. “We really had to come focused, because we knew what happened down at Gardiner when we played them.

The Broncos extended their lead to as many as 16 points in the third quarter, the first time when Uhrin hit a 3-pointer off a feed from point guard Daniel McCue to make it 35-19 midway through the period.

The margin was 39-25 entering the fourth quarter, and the game got no closer than that the rest of the way as McCue scored six of his eight points in the period.

“Once Sean got into foul trouble we lost all of our momentum,” said Gardiner coach Dana Doran. “At that point, once he was out of the game we were kind of at a loss. You could see it on the kids faces, once Sean was out of this important game, and I don’t think we recovered from it.”

McNally drew the defensive assignment against Cook, but Hampden opted to put forwards Max Silver and Sam Hodgdon on the Gardiner big man, leaving Cook essentially to play a one-man zone in the middle of the lane.

The strategy worked to perfection, because while McNally battled foul issues throughout the game – picking up his third midway through the third quarter and his fourth in the first minute of the final period – Cook was left not only to guard his own man in the Broncos’ defensive set, but help out against any Gardiner player who entered the lane.

“I thought the key was whoever got in foul trouble first between Jordan and Sean,” said Hampden coach Russ Bartlett. “We wanted to protect Jordan a little, and Sam and Max are competitive. Sam is 6-4 and Max is 6-2, and I thought if we could get through the first half with those guys doing what we needed them to do against Sean, then we could have Jordan match up with him in the second half. But it was effective enough to stay with it, and it worked.”

Hampden’s defense – which limited Gardiner to 23 percent shooting (12 of 53) from the field – wasn’t limited to the inside, as Uhrin, Evan Farley and Daniel McCue combined to contest the Gardiner outside shooters and limit their drives into the lane.

“Uhrin and McCue did a wonderful job on our guards,” said Doran. “They shut Kyle Stilphen down, they took away all of his penetration. Peter Kelley got some shots in the lane and Mike Lavallee got some shots, but there weren’t a lot of quality shots.”

BRONCOS 55, TIGERS 38

Gardiner (15-5) Hampden (17-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Stilphen 0 8 2 2 2 Juco 0 0 0

Nivus 0 1 0 0 0 Evans 0 0 0

Burdin 0 1 0 0 0 Uhrin 7 9 16

Kelley 3 8 2 2 8 Schaeffer 0 0

Temple 0 0 0 0 0 Farley 0 3 0

McNally 3 10 5 5 11 McCue 2 6 8

Goodwin 0 2 0 0 0 Spaulding 0 0

Kallman 3 9 0 0 6 Hodgdon 1 2 3

Breton 1 5 0 0 3 Silver 2 2 4

Lavallee 2 8 2 2 8 Cook 10 22 24

Fortune 0 0 0 0 0 Aurelio 0 0 0

Godfrey 0 0 0 0 0 Maddox 0 0 0

Coan 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 12 53 11 11 38 Totals 22 44 11 55

Gardiner 9 17 25 38

Hampden 13 28 39 55

3-pt. goals – Gardiner (3-15): Lavallee 2-6, Breton 1-3, McNally 0-1, Stilphen 0-2, Kelley 0-3; Hampden (3-10): Uhrin 2-3, Hodgdon 1-1, Farley 0-2, McCue 0-2, Cook 0-2