BANGOR – Throughout the first quarter of Saturday night’s Class C boys basketball state championship game, Boothbay was dominating Calais inside.

The defending state champs had a simple solution to that problem: run, run, and run.

“Our whole season’s been run, run, run, that’s all we know how to do,” said senior guard Robbie Rogers.

The quicker Blue Devils eventually wore down the bigger Seahawks and eked out a 70-66 victory at the Bangor Auditorium to complete a second consecutive undefeated season.

Calais finished 22-0 and is 44-0 over two seasons while Boothbay wound up 19-3.

Despite being tired throughout the final period, the Seahawks refused to go quietly.

After trailing by as many as 10, Boothbay pulled to within one with 50 seconds left on a pullup 3-pointer from the left wing by Roy Arsenault.

After a timeout, Rogers, who scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half, converted a tough layup to push the lead back to three at 67-64.

Following two Kris Noonan free throws that made it 67-66, Rogers hit another inside shot to make it 69-66.

The Seahawks had a chance to tie it, but Matt Sceviour’s 3-point attempt from the left wing with just under 10 seconds left bounced off the side of the rim, and Chris Taylor’s free throw with 0.1 seconds left iced the victory.

The Seahawks led 14-9 after the first quarter, but the Blue Devils scored the first nine points of the second on 3-pointers by Jordan Leeman, Brandon Tomah, and Chris Taylor to set the tone for the rest of the game.

“We tried to run them and take away some of their legs off the glass. That’s where we thought we had the advantage,” Calais coach Ed Leeman said. “I thought the boys did a great job of getting out in transition and getting the ball up and down the floor.”

Tomah, a senior guard, concurred.

“We just like to get up and down the court. We didn’t think they could keep up with us,” said Tomah, who finished with six points. “After a while they got tired and couldn’t keep up.”

Torrid outside shooting by Sceviour, who hit all four of his 3-pointers in the final quarter, kept the Seahawks in the game.

“He’s a great shooter. I didn’t realize how good of a shooter that kid is,” Tomah said of Sceviour. “He got a little bit of daylight and he was nailing them. He’s a great player.”

Boothbay coach I.J. Pinkham added, “He’s the smallest kid on the floor and he’s got the biggest heart in the world. He’s what kept us in it down the stretch.”

Pinkham’s biggest inside threat, the 6-foot-4 Noonan, scored 10 of his team’s first 14 points, but Calais stuck to its defensive game plan despite being outrebounded 36-26.

“They’ve got good shooters all the way around, and we didn’t want to leave those guys open,” Leeman said. “So we tried to play them straight up and give a little help-side if we had it. In the second half we did a better job.”

Rogers added, “All our game is mostly defense and running. That’s what we did tonight. We played a lot of defense and our offense just came with it.”

The Seahawks did a solid job of containing EM tourney MVP Tomah, but the Blue Devils had too much balance.

Taylor finished with 16 points, Rod Tirrell 15 and Sam Bell 12. Tomah grabbed eight rebounds.

“It hasn’t been about one guy all year,” Leeman said. “We’re a unit, we win and lose as a unit, [and] tonight we won as a unit, and we’re blessed.”

Pinkham acknowledged that Calais’ running game was simply too much.

“They beat us up the floor, they beat us in transition,” Pinkham said. “We knew coming in the strength of their game was running out. If you let them run out, they’re gonna kill you.”

Noonan led all scorers with 23 points for the Seahawks. Sceviour finished with 19 points and seven rebounds, and Owen Johnson chipped in with 10 points and nine rebounds.

BLUE DEVILS 70, SEAHAWKS 66

Boothbay (19-3) Calais (22-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Sceviour 7 13 1 1 19 Shorey 1 4 2

Norton 2 9 0 0 4 Tomah 2 5 6

Stover 1 3 0 0 2 Rogers 8 15 16

Johnson 5 11 0 0 10 Taylor 7 14 16

Arsenault 3 12 0 0 8 Bell 4 10 12

Noonan 10 17 3 6 23 Leeman 1 1 3

Tirrel 7 11 0 15

Totals 28 65 4 7 66 Totals 30 60 13 70

Boothbay 14 26 42 66

Calais 9 26 43 70

3-pt. goals – Boothbay (6-14): Sceviour 4-8, Arsenault 2-6; Calais (5-7): Tomah 2-2, Tirrel 1-2, Taylor 1-2, Leeman 1-1