AUGUSTA – The Bangor High School boys basketball team faced high expectations this winter, both within the program and from the state’s sporting community at large.

Those expectations: to win it all.

Expectations became reality at the Augusta Civic Center on Saturday night, as Bangor used a stifling defense and the all-around play of senior Alex Gallant to whip Portland 56-39 in the Class A state championship game.

The title was the 11th overall in the program’s history, the seventh in the last 15 years under veteran coach Roger Reed.

“It feels great to live up to everyone else’s expectations as well as our own,” said Gallant, who finished with game-high totals of 22 points and 10 rebounds. “Any Bangor team is never going to be happy unless it wins the last game, so it was real nice to win the last game, especially against a team like Portland. The West is always very good, Portland’s a great team, and we’re just lucky to come out on top.”

But luck had less to do with the outcome of this game than Bangor’s play, especially on the defensive end where the 21-1 Rams frustrated Portland perimeter standouts Andrew Duncanson and Ryan Carmichael while shutting down any semblance of inside offense by the Bulldogs.

The lightning-quick Duncanson, MVP of the Western A tournament, managed just 13 points on 6-of-15 shooting from the field, while Carmichael was held to nine points on three 3-point goals.

“I thought defensively we were capable of doing a good job, and that was our focus all week, to make sure we defended, especially Duncanson and Carmichael,” said Reed.

“We knew they were two people who got their team going, and we felt they had to score for them to be successful. We focused a lot of attention on them with good defenders, and the rest of the guys had to be solid.

“I thought we had a great, solid effort throughout the game, and I tip my hat to the kids for that.”

That defense was led by a pair of 6-foot-3 juniors, Adam Bernstein and Lee Suvlu. Bernstein, who didn’t become a regular starter for the Rams until the Eastern A semifinals, used his height and athleticism to keep himself between the 5-8 Duncanson and the basket.

“He shook me a bunch of times, because he’s one of the quickest players in the state,” said Bernstein. “I never really had to guard anyone like him, and I didn’t know what to expect. Coming out for the second quarter, I was a little frustrated, but Lee talked to me and got my head back in it, and I was able to keep him in front of me a little better.”

Suvlu was charged with containing Carmichael’s long-range game, and the Portland senior finished the night 3 for 8 from 3-point land, 3 for 9 overall.

“He worked me tonight. I was running through screens like crazy,” said Suvlu, who also contributed eight points and five rebounds.

“With Duncanson there’s really not much you can do because if you help on him he’ll kick it out to Carmichael, so thankfully Adam had enough defensive ability to stay with Duncanson so even if he got by him a little bit he could contest the shot and make it a bad shot rather than have him kick it out to Carmichael for an open 3.”

While Bangor had some defensive answers for Portland’s major threats, Portland had no answer for Gallant, the 6-4 forward who picked up where he left off after dominating the Eastern A tournament a week earlier.

The Bates College-bound Gallant shot 10 of 19 from the field – including several midrange jumpers – and teamed with 6-5 junior center Ryan Weston for 35 points and 18 rebounds as that duo ruled play near the basket.

“Defense and rebounding win games,” said Portland coach Joe Russo, “and Bangor’s defense never allowed us to get untracked. Quite frankly, I was surprised that we even scored 39 points with the offensive looks we got.

“They took us out of our comfort zone just enough so we would have to rush a shot, or we had to take an off-balance shot, and we never got a second shot against them.”

Weston scored 11 of his 13 points after intermission as Bangor gradually pulled away.

“We just happened to change our offense around,” said Weston. “We started cutting more, we started looking inside more, and the guards did a great job of finding me and Alex inside.”

That guard play was sparked by senior Troy Jellison, who contributed seven points and six rebounds and helped negate Portland’s ability to create easy offense by forcing turnovers. Bangor committed only 10 turnovers.

“We really worked on spreading the floor against their pressure and hitting the big guys,” said Jellison. “Once we hit Alex or Ryan, the press was broken, and we got a couple of easy layups out of it and then they were scared about keeping it on.”

This marked the first meeting between Bangor and Portland in a boys basketball state final since 1936, and Duncanson got Portland off to a quick start with a jumper from the lane and then feeding center Justin Powell for a layup to give the Bulldogs a 4-2 lead.

It was their only lead.

Bangor scored the next eight points, as Weston scored off a lob from Bernstein, Jellison took a steal in for a layup and then Gallant scored from the low post and on a baseline jumper to give the Rams a 10-4 lead midway through the period.

Portland (20-2) rallied within 12-11 by the end of the quarter before Bangor went on another run, scoring 10 straight points to take a 22-11 lead while holding Portland scoreless for 5 minutes, 33 seconds.

Bernstein made a jumper off a Suvlu inbounding pass and Gallant followed with a fast-break layup. Suvlu then made two free throws before Gallant scored twice from the low post, the second time off a nice feed from reserve forward Ian Edwards.

But Jellison and Suvlu each picked up his second foul and had to sit, and that gave Portland – in particular Carmichael – some breathing room on the perimeter, where the 6-3 forward made two 3-pointers to draw the Bulldogs within 22-18 by intermission.

Bangor went back inside after the break and almost immediately stretched out its lead. Weston fed a cutting Suvlu for what turned out to be a three-point play to open the third quarter, and Gallant followed a Duncanson floater with a baseline jumper.

Weston then was fouled and sent to the line, where he made the first shot but missed the second – only to have Gallant outquick two Portland rebounders to the ball and score on the putback to give the Rams a 30-20 cushion midway through the period.

“There were a couple of times when there was a glimmer of hope, a couple of times when we made a nice run, but then they’d get a rebound and score,” said Russo. “That really stopped our little rhythm and we’d never really get untracked.

“Offensive rebounding wins games, and defensive rebounding wins games, and they dominated the boards.”

Duncanson’s backcourt steal set up an Anthony Passmore layup, and Duncanson then hit a jumper from the left wing as Portland closed within 32-26, but again Bangor had an answer.

This time it was six consecutive points. Suvlu hit two from the line and Weston scored inside and fed Bernstein for a layup to give the Rams a 12-point lead at 38-26.

“We’ve always been a second-half team, but we came out in the first half stronger than we have all year,” said Suvlu. “So we knew it was going to be our game in the second half, and we came out with intensity.”

The margin was 39-28 entering the final period, and Portland got no closer than nine points when Carmichael hit a 3-pointer with 5:38 left. Bangor put the game away with 11 unanswered points, a run that began with Weston scoring after grabbing an offensive rebound and climaxed by Gallant’s one-handed dunk off a Portland turnover.

“I wish I would have made it a little better, but it felt good,” said Gallant, who had provided a similar exclamation point to the Rams’ 53-36 win over Messalonskee in the Eastern A final a week earlier. “Just to end the career like that and get the crowd going, I thought it was fun.”

And so the expectations have been reached, particularly those that count most to the Rams – their own.

“I still don’t think we’ve quite peaked, which is a scary thought,” said Weston. “But I definitely think this was our best game of the year.”

RAMS 56, BULLDOGS 39

Portland (20-2) Bangor (21-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Duncansn 6 15 1 3 13 Crews 0 1 0

Passmore 2 7 0 0 5 Jellison 1 7

Longstaff 2 7 1 1 5 McAllian 0 0

Ciccarelli 0 3 0 0 0 Zolper 0 0 0

Tho 0 0 0 0 0 Edwards 0 0 0 0

White 0 0 0 0 0 Suvlu 2 8 8

Carmichel 3 9 0 0 9 Bernstein 2 4

Waxman 0 0 0 0 0 Webb 1 2 2

Powell 3 8 1 2 7 Gallant 10 19 22

Zukowski 0 0 0 0 0 Chase 0 0 0

Ho 0 0 0 0 0 Weston 6 9 1 13

Totals 16 49 3 6 39 Totals 22 48 12 16 56

Portland 11 18 28 39

Bangor 12 22 39 56

3-pt. goals – Portland (4-14): Carmichael 3-8, Passmore 1-2, Duncanson 0-4; Bangor (0-8): Webb 0-1, Bernstein 0-1, Jellison 0-2, Suvlu 0-4