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BANGOR – In a game that resembled a classic Larry Bird-Magic Johnson, Lakers-Celtics duel, it appeared for a while that neither No. 2 Deer Isle-Stonington nor top-seeded Schenck could throw a knockout punch.
With 8.7 seconds left in Saturday morning’s Eastern Maine Class D title game, the final blow came in the form of a conventional three-point play by the Mariners’ John Eaton.
The junior forward hauled down a miss by Collin Ciomei, converted a tough layup and calmly sank a free throw after being fouled by Chris Byron to give the Mariners a 75-74 victory at a noisy Bangor Auditorium.
Deer Isle-Stonington, 21-0, advances to Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. state final against Gould Academy of Bethel at Bangor.
Schenck of East Millinocket finished 19-3.
DI-S turned in a strong shooting effort, hitting 26 of 48 shots from the field (54 percent), compared to Schenck’s 25 of 58 (43 percent).
The Wolverines didn’t quit, however, fighting back from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to tie the game at 70 with 2:17 left on a 10-foot Mike Lowell turnaround from the high block.
The Mariners had no reason to abandon ship and stuck with their uptempo attack.
“We just had to keep calm and run through our offense,” said Ciomei, who finished with 21 points. “We knew if we ran through it a couple times, we could get an easy layup.”
In the last two minutes, all five of the Mariners’ points came from inside penetration or the free-throw line.
“We were trying to get into the post for high-percentage shots,” Eaton said. “We had a couple of turnovers, [but] we finally executed a couple times and got into the flow of things.”
Eaton said the final out-of-bounds play was set up for Ciomei. Brother Bryant Ciomei found Collin Ciomei cutting to the basket and Eaton was trailing the play.
After Collin Ciomei’s miss, Eaton was there to pick up the rebound.
“I was fortunate enough to get the rebound, put it back in, and get fouled,” Eaton said.
“He’s been following up all season on the offensive glass; that’s something he’s been doing very, very well,” said DI-S coach Glen Billings, who added that his players thrived on the noisy atmosphere.
“This is what the tournament is all about,” Billings said, “to get in this atmosphere and have a ballgame like that.”
Eaton’s brother, Shane Eaton, clinched the win with intense defense, forcing Kerry Thompson to travel with 0.6 seconds left.
After DI-S went up 75-74, the Wolverines had no timeouts left and thus had to go the length of the floor in eight seconds.
“We had a shot to win, it just didn’t work out,” Schenck coach Steve LeVasseur said.
Throughout the first half, the Wolverines had difficulty keeping up with the Mariners’ speedy transition game.
“We caused our own problems by not getting back and giving them too many easy points,” said LeVasseur.
Though DI-S was generating high-percentage baskets, the play of Byron, who finished with a game-high 29 points, kept the Wolverines close in the first half.
The Mariners picked up a pivotal five-point surge in the second quarter when they were trailing 32-29 with 2:41 left and then converted five free throws – two when Collin Ciomei was fouled, two more from Bryant Ciomei when LeVasseur received a technical foul for his reaction to the foul call, and another by Bryant Ciomei on the ensuing play.
The Mariners made a key halftime adjustment, having 6-footers Rob Brown and Shane Eaton closely watch Byron on the perimeter and force him to work off the dribble.
“We switched man up on him a little bit,” Billings said. “We went with a taller man. We didn’t think he could consistently make that outside shot.”
The Mariners extended their four-point halftime lead to eight at the end of the third behind nine Collin Ciomei points.
They extended it to 11 early in the fourth, but the Wolverines battled back with a 17-6 scoring surge over approximately four minutes that tied it at 70 with 2:17 left. Lowell scored eight points in the surge and Byron added six.
John Eaton finished with a team-high 23 points and Brown scored 13 for the Mariners.
Lowell shot 6-for-8 from 3-point range en route to 25 points for Schenck, while Kerry Thompson finished with 16.
MARINERS 75, WOLVERINES 74 DI-Stonington (21-0) Schenck (19-3) Player AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP Powers 4 5 0 0 8 Hutchins 0 0 0 C. Ciomei 7 13 4 4 21 McLghlin 0 0 J. Eaton 9 12 3 3 23 Lowell 8 17 25 Brown 4 8 4 7 13 K. Thpsn 5 12 4 4 16 B. Ciomei 1 6 5 6 7 Graham 0 1 0 0 0 S. Eaton 1 4 0 Byron 10 20 7 10 29 L. Thpsn 2 2 0 4 Lewis 0 4 0 0 0 Totals 26 48 16 20 75 Totals 25 58 14 19 74 Deer Isle-Stoningto22 41 59 75 Schenck 17 37 51 74 3-pt. goals – Deer Isle-Stonington (7-11): S. Eaton 1-2, B. Ciomei 0-1, Brown 1-1, J. Eaton 2-2, C. Ciomei 3-5; Schenck (10-17): Lowell 6-8, K. Thompson 2-3, Byron 2-5, Graham 0-1
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