Undefeated Bangor boys intend to sweep Eastern & State A titles

Everything about the Bangor boys basketball team’s 2007-08 regular season has been first in class.

The Rams entered the late stages of the regular season undefeated, and rarely challenged.

Coach Roger Reed’s club has been stifling on defense when necessary, allowing its first 16 opponents an average of 40.6 points per game. Nine of those foes scored fewer than 40 points, and three finished a game in the 20s.

Just one team, Lewiston, scored more than 56 points against the Rams, and to elevate their offensive potential, the Blue Devils sacrificed defense, enabling Bangor to pull away to an 85-62 victory.

Only one team has challenged the Rams for a full game, when Edward Little of Auburn threatened to pull off the upset before Bangor salvaged a 56-53 victory in their first meeting of the season.

The rematch also produced one of Bangor’s closer final scores of the season, but the Rams’ 57-42 victory wasn’t that close. After a competitive first half, Bangor built a lead of as much as 24 points before EL outscored the Rams 11-2 in the final minutes after the game had long been decided.

The formula for Bangor’s regular-season success has featured the fundamentals of basketball: defense, rebounding and offensive unselfishness.

Look through the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A statistics and other teams will boast the league leaders in most categories. But in such team statistics as point differential and rebounding differential, the Rams rule the rankings.

Credit much of that success to experience. Bangor’s roster features 11 seniors, several of whom have the experience of last year’s run to the program’s seventh Class A state championship in the last 15 years.

Center Ryan Weston, guards Lee Suvlu and Jon McAllian and forwards Billy Zolper, Adam Bernstein and Ian Edwards lead the veteran contingent that has combined height, speed, teamwork and experience to power the Rams to 28 consecutive victories overall heading into postseason play.

And in Reed, who recently earned his 500th coaching victory, Bangor has one of the most successful coaches in state basketball history.

It’s a recipe that left Bangor an extraordinary 57 Heal points ahead of second-place Edward Little entering the final days of the regular season – and closing in on its first undefeated regular season since 1995.

And that’s a reality 10 other challengers in the Eastern Maine Class A tournament field must attempt to solve if one of them is to depose the Rams and claim the regional championship for its own.

Among the top contenders is Edward Little, whose own undefeated season a year ago provided a valuable lesson for Bangor to remember as it continued its quest to remain unbeaten.

EL entered postseason play at 18-0 last winter, only to be upset by Hampden Academy in the quarterfinals.

This year coach Mike Adams’ Red Eddies lack the presence of 2007 Mr. Basketball, 6-foot-7 Troy Barnies, now at the University of Maine. But EL does boast a four-guard attack that has rounded into form, enabling the team to rebound from a sluggish 3-3 start to earn a preliminary-round bye.

Hampden, which has finished no worse than with a semifinal berth over the last three seasons under coach Russ Bartlett, has the offensive patience and resilient defense to challenge any team in the field. Seniors Brad Haase, Justin Brown and Antonio Juco lead the way for the Broncos.

Cony of Augusta features a premier player in 1,000-point scorer Andrew Pullen, and the supporting cast developed under veteran coach Bruce Hunt to put the Rams in position to avoid a preliminary-round game.

But even those three teams may be susceptible to an early upset, given the parity within the division. Entering the final week of regular-season play, only Bangor, Edward Little, Cony and Mt. Blue of Farmington had fewer than six losses.

A loss by Bangor in the Eastern Maine tournament seems somewhat less likely – but as the New York Giants showed, anything is possible.