Trojans bury Bapst with defensive pressure

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BANGOR – The Mount Desert Island boys basketball team has made its way toward the top of the Eastern Maine Class B standings with a touch of flash here and there, but mostly with a whole lot of substance.

Substance on Wednesday night came largely in the form of fullcourt zone defensive pressure that created 17 steals among 25 John Bapst turnovers as MDI remained undefeated with a 61-34 victory over the Crusaders at the Bangor Auditorium.

The Trojans, now 6-0 and ranked third in the latest Heal Point ratings, broke the game open with an 11-0 run spanning the final 4 minutes, 37 seconds of the first quarter to turn a 7-4 deficit into a 15-7 lead.

Senior forward Wes Chipman was an early catalyst, scoring six points and grabbing five rebounds in the period against a John Bapst front line featuring 6-foot-8 junior center Ethan Cushman.

“On offense we really weren’t fazed that much by their big guy, and all of our other players were shooting good,” said MDI senior forward Andrew Veilleux.

Coach Wilton Jones’ club then forced 10 John Bapst turnovers in the second quarter as the Trojans extended their advantage to 35-17 at intermission.

“Our goal was just to come out and apply pressure on them,” said Veilleux. “We’ve been working on our presses all week and it showed tonight that our work paid off. We jumped on them early and there was no looking back from there.”

When Bapst did handle the press, MDI’s halfcourt zone limited the Crusaders to 28 percent (13 of 46) shooting from the field.

“Coach was telling us all week long that he didn’t think they were great outside shooters,” said senior guard Collin Walton, “so we went to our zone and basically made them try to beat us from the outside, and they couldn’t do it.”

Walton was a chief beneficiary of MDI’s defensive success, scoring a game-high 14 points as the Trojans converted John Bapst turnovers into transition offense.

“We’ve got a deep bench,” said Walton, “so we try to keep the tempo up and push the ball on the secondary break as much as we can. Then we look to get the ball into the post, and from there we just create.”

Chipman finished with 12 points and eight rebounds, all in the first half, while Veilleux added seven points and eight rebounds and junior point guard Ben Young contributed eight assists.

MDI also got a significant contribution from its bench, particularly the trio of Jake Merchant, Jake Sattler and Nick Swanson who came on to help the Trojans outscore Bapst 20-10 in the second quarter.

“That’s how it’s going to be with our team every game all season,” said Walton. “We’ve just got so many players that can shoot, drive and pass. There’s a lot of versatility on our team that helps us a lot.”

Cushman led 2-6 John Bapst with nine points, five rebounds and five blocked shots.

TROJANS 61, CRUSADERS 34

Mt. Desert Island (6-0) John Bapst (2-6)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Strout 1 2 1 2 3 Gallant 1 5 2

Parady 1 4 0 1 2 M.Gagnn 0 0 0

Dunn 0 1 0 4 0 D.Smith 0 2 0 0

Leiser 0 0 0 0 0 J.Gagnon 3 6

Sattler 1 1 0 0 2 N.Smith 1 5 2

Hall 1 1 3 4 5 Bragdon 0 4 0 0

Merchant 3 4 1 2 7 Ortiz 2 5 4

Walton 7 13 0 0 14 Healey 1 6 2

Swanson 0 3 2 4 2 Frye 0 0 0

Young 1 1 0 0 3 Merritt 1 3 2

Mitchell 1 4 0 2 2 Burke 2 2 7

Ferm 1 1 0 0 2 Cushman 2 6 5 9

Veilleux 3 10 1 2 7

Chipman 4 7 4 5 12

Totals 24 52 12 26 61 Totals 13 46 16 34

Mt. Desert Island 15 35 50 61

John Bapst 7 17 23 34

3-pt. goals – MDI (1-2): Young 1-1, Walton 0-1; John Bapst (0-5): D. Smith 0-1, Ortiz 0-1, Healey 0-1, J. Gagnon 0-2

JV: John Bapst 44-42

Attendance: 300 (est.)