BANGOR – Defending state champions, a 20-1 record, and status as a perennial power in the world of Eastern Maine Class D boys basketball.

The Central Aroostook Panthers of Mars Hill had all these things going for them, but that didn’t seem to thin the ranks of detractors who doubted the Panthers had enough returning firepower and leadership to carry them from the No. 6 seeding to a second straight regional title.

After all, the very reason the Panthers were seeded sixth despite their record was a big reason some fans were cynical. The 2005-06 schedule was a weak one and was ill-equipped to prepare the Panthers for the rigors of the play-tough-or-go-home tourney.

The Panthers silenced the naysayers completely Saturday by completing a run of three straight wins against the Nos. 3, 2 and 1 seeds and notching their 20th straight this season with an 80-52 verdict over top seed Deer Isle-Stonington at the Bangor Auditorium.

“Our schedule is really no different than last year as far as being harder or easier,” said CAHS coach Tim Brewer. “The difference is some of the teams we don’t play were worth some points and other teams were beating them. I thought the kids were really peaking down the stretch and playing really well.”

That was evident Saturday as the Panthers used deadly accurate outside shooting, a suffocating mix of zone and man-to-man defensive pressure, and good ball control to take over early and never looked back.

The 21-1 Panthers will take on West champ Richmond next Saturday at the Augusta Civic Center in a 3:05 p.m. state final.

“We knew what they were going to bring, but the hard part was trying to take away what they wanted to do,” said coach Glenn Billings, whose Mariners finish up 17-3. “Even when we got in transition, they did a good job of shutting us off when we got there.”

The Panthers pounced on a 9-3 lead and then used a 10-0 run to finish the first quarter and pad their lead to 21-9. The Mariners would get no closer than eight points the rest of the way.

“We know we’re a pretty consistent shooting team, so the thing we knew we had to do to win this game was play defense,” said senior guard Andrew York, who scored 12 points in the first quarter en route to a game-high 24. “We came out in a 1-2-2 and stopped their penetration really well.”

Nobody stopped York, who was freed up offensively by a gamble taken by Brewer, who opted to move him from point guard to shooting guard.

“We moved him off the ball to get him easier shots,” Brewer said. “We were standing so much on offense the last two games, I felt we needed to do it.”

There wasn’t much standing around this time as Tim Carlson finished with 19 points and three steals, Cameron York drained all 12 free throws he took and finished with 16, and Sam Clockedile came off the bench to contribute 10 points, three assists and two rebounds.

“It was a total team effort today with our defense and guys making big shots,” said York. “We all contributed.”

The Panthers shot 54.5 percent from the field, harassed DI-S into 24 turnovers while they had just 13, and held their own on the boards with 22 rebounds to the Mariners’ 27.

Bryant Ciomei led the 17-3 Mariners with 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

PANTHERS 80, MARINERS 52

Cen. Aroostook (19-1) DI-Stonington (19-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Walling 0 0 0 0 0 Powers 1 2 2

C.York 2 4 12 12 16 C.Ciomei 3 7

McLaghlin 0 2 2 2 2 Billings 3 6

A.York 7 12 6 6 24 Siebert 0 2 1

Carlson 4 7 0 2 9 J.Eaton 2 4 6

Clockedile 4 7 0 0 10 Douglas 0 0 0

E.Martinez 4 5 0 0 9 Brown 3 7 7

M.Martinez 2 5 3 4 7 Hardy 0 2 0

L.McCrthy 1 2 1 1 3 Gross 0 0 0

B.McCrthy 0 0 0 0 0 B.Ciomei 3 12

C.Garcia 0 0 2

R.Garcia 0 1 2

S.Eaton 3 5 1 7

Totals 24 44 24 27 80 Totals 18 44 13 15 52

Central Aroostook 21 42 58 80

Deer Isle-Stonington 9 25 36 52

3-pt. goals – Central Aroostook (8-15): A. York 4-7, Clockedile 2-4, E. Martinez 1-1, Carlson 1-2, M. Martinez 0-1; Deer Isle-Stonington (3-15): J. Eaton 2-3, B. Ciomei 1-5, R. Garcia 0-1, S. Eaton 0-1, Hardy 0-1, Billings 0-2, C. Ciomei 0-2