Unbeaten Rams feature balance, rout Brunswick Bangor battles Mt. Blue next

loading...

AUGUSTA – One of the enduring memories of any schoolboy basketball tournament comes when an eighth seed knocks off No. 1 in the regional quarterfinals.

But while the undefeated Bangor Rams are interested in making memories of their own before this year’s postseason becomes history, they weren’t about to be remembered for being such a first-round victim Saturday night.

Jon McAllian, Billy Zolper and Lee Suvlu each scored 15 points, and the top-ranked Rams used a 17-0 second-quarter run to pull away to a 74-56 Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal victory over No. 8 Brunswick at the Augusta Civic Center.

“On our team there are so many scorers and so many people who want the ball and when they get it they can score,” said Zolper, a senior forward who made seven of his 10 shots from the field. “Defense and rebounding are things that come every night, and over the first half of the season, we developed an offense that flows together, and now we know how to work the offense with each other.”

The win was the 29th straight overall for coach Roger Reed’s Bangor club, which will take its 19-0 record this season into an 8:35 p.m. Wednesday semifinal against No. 5 Mt. Blue of Farmington. Mt. Blue upended No. 4 Cony of Augusta 50-33 in its quarterfinal.

The Dragons (11-8) matched baskets with Bangor for the game’s first few minutes, and held a 6-4 lead on a long jumper by Connor Breisacher midway through the first period.

Bangor then began to exploit offensive mismatches, particularly inside where Brunswick couldn’t contain Zolper or 6-foot-5 senior center Ryan Weston. Weston scored on a feed from Suvlu to ignite a run of nine unanswered points by the Rams, with the 6-4 Zolper adding three field goals while being guarded by 5-8 Brunswick point guard Robbie Basquez.

“In the beginning of the game we run motion and go through our sets, and then we start to figure out where we’ve got mismatches and where we can take people to the basket,” said Zolper.

Leading 15-8 after the first period, Bangor then broke the game open by making its first nine shots of the second quarter – many from the perimeter as McAllian got untracked. The 6-5 senior guard scored 10 points in the period and highlighted a 17-0 Bangor run with a dunk off a lob from Suvlu as the Rams pulled away to a 40-18 halftime lead.

“We started a little slow, but once we got into it, we were on fire,” McAllian. “We got a lot of good shots.”

The rangy guard also parlayed defense into instant offense, twice using his long arms to reach into passing lanes for perimeter steals that led to layups, once by him and the second time by Zolper.

“I try to keep my hands down so they don’t see my arm length, and right when they pass it, I put my hands up so I can try and catch them off-guard,” said McAllian.

McAllian had 11 points at the break, while Zolper had 10, Weston seven and Suvlu six to pace a balanced attack.

And while Bangor was shooting 65 percent (17 of 26) from the field, Brunswick was just 7 of 20, or 35 percent.

“Our goal coming in was to be very selective on offense and take a great shot every time down,” said Brunswick coach Todd Hanson. “I thought we could do a little better job defensively on them, but then when we got behind we couldn’t really be patient. We ended up taking quick shots and that’s the kiss of death against Bangor.

“If you take quick shots, you’re in trouble, and I knew when they were going to have 40 at halftime that we didn’t have much of a chance.”

In Saturday night’s first game, Mt. Blue surged to an 11-point first-half lead en route to its 13th win.

Jamison Sawyer paced the Cougars with 17 points and Joseph Gilbert added 10.

Greg O’Neill led Cony with 13 points.

Cony (13-6) 33

Cotnoir, Rende 2-1-5, Lachance, Burns, O’Neill 4-3-13, Morang 1-1-3, Carville 1-2-4, Record, Patridge, McDonald, O’Brien, Pullen 2-3-8

Mt. Blue (13-6) 50

Gilbert 4-2-10, Hoyt 1-0-2, Trask, Sawyer 6-5-17, Russell 3-4-10, Backus 1-5-7, Berry, Kobischen 1-2-4, Simpson, Zamboni, Cormier

3-pt. goals: O’Neill 2, Pullen

Cony 4 17 27 33

Mt. Blue 8 28 42 50

eclark@bangordailynews.net

990-8045

RAMS 74, DRAGONS 56

Brunswick (11-9) Bangor (19-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Miller 0 2 0 0 0 R.Larchlle 1 3

Basquez 1 2 0 0 2 Frazier 0 2 0

K. Wilson 0 0 2 3 2 C.Larchlle 1 2

Scully 1 2 1 3 3 McAllian 6 11 2 3 15

D. Wilson 1 1 2 4 4 Zolper 7 9 15

Edgerton 1 3 3 4 6 Edwards 1 1 2

Breisacher 5 10 0 0 10 Cox 1 2 5

Bryant 1 3 0 0 3 Suvlu 6 10 15

Easter 5 16 8 8 18 Bernstein 1 2

Carter 1 1 0 0 2 Cllrd-Sgn 0 1

Fraser 3 5 0 0 6 Henigan 0 0 0

Hall 1 2 0 2

McDade 0 2 0 0

Martin 1 1 3 5

Weston 3 4 1 7

Totals 19 45 16 22 56 Totals 29 52 14 23 74

Brunswick 8 18 29 56

Bangor 15 40 60 74

3-pt. goals – Brunswick (2-7): Edgerton 1-1, Bryant 1-2, Easter 0-4; Bangor (2-10): Suvlu 1-2, McAllian 1-4, R. Larochelle 0-1, Zolper 0-1, Frazier 0-1, Collard-Seguin 0-1