No. 1 CAHS is next for Fort Fairfield Win in Bangor 1st for Tigers since ’88

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BANGOR – For Central Aroostook of Mars Hill, Monday afternoon’s Eastern Maine Class D boys basketball quarterfinals were business as usual.

For Fort Fairfield, they marked a bit of school history.

Top-ranked and undefeated Central Aroostook built a huge early lead and cruised past No. 9 Machias 82-52 to earn its sixth consecutive trip to the regional semifinals.

No. 5 Fort Fairfield pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 61-48 win over No. 4 Ashland to score its first tournament victory at the Bangor Auditorium since 1988.

In the first game, Fort Fairfield (15-5) never trailed after scoring the last eight points of the first half for a 33-26 lead, and limited a taller Ashland team to its lowest offensive output of the season.

“The good thing for us is we’re nine deep in our regular rotation, and we’re athletic one through nine,” said Fort Fairfield coach Todd Alley. “We rotate well defensively because we’re quick, so when we did get beat someone was stepping over and helping out.”

Ashland (15-5) was hindered by foul trouble, particularly to center Lucas Belanger, and couldn’t overcome an overall quickness deficit. The Hornets committed 22 turnovers and shot just 34 percent (17 of 50) from the field.

“They got our post players into foul trouble early, and our offense tends to run inside-out,” said Ashland coach Joel Hall. “We feed those guys, and they’re usually very good underneath but they were a little jittery today. That allowed Fort Fairfield to stay right in the faces of our shooters outside.”

Fort Fairfield extended its lead to 11 points in the third quarter, but Ashland rallied within 45-40 by the end of the period.

Fort Fairfield put the game away with eight straight points during a two-minute span early in the fourth, with sophomore guard Josh Booth hitting two jumpers and senior forward Ryan Noyes adding a jumper and two assists during the surge, which gave the Tigers a 53-40 lead with 5:22 left.

Booth, who also hit a 30-foot 3-pointer to end the first period, finished with a game-high 15 points, while Matt Cresenzo scored 10 points and Noyes and Austin Dufour added nine points each.

Jeremy Tarr led Ashland with 13 points, while Justin Belanger had 11 points and 13 rebounds.

In the second game, defensive pressure led by guards Manny Martinez and Cameron York helped 19-0 Central Aroostook build a 31-8 lead midway through the second period as the Panthers outscored Machias 21-2 over a five-minute span.

“Coach tells us every game to leave everything we have on the floor because this could be our last game,” said York. “You never know, so we just wanted to come out and really set the tone.”

Central Aroostook’s cushion was 46-18 by intermission, as Martinez scored 15 points, York had 10 and sophomore guard Kasey Brewer came off the bench to score 12 points in the first two quarters.

“We wanted to put as much pressure on them as we could because we noticed they liked to walk the ball up the floor and set up their offense,” said Martinez. “I don’t think they did that all night. We made them take quicker shots and make some bad decisions and turn the ball over.”

The Central Aroostook lead grew to 56-25 before Machias scored the final 12 points of the third quarter, but the Panthers regrouped early in the fourth to quell the Bulldogs’ momentum.

“The kids have been looking forward to getting here since about halfway through the season,” said Central Aroostook coach Tim Brewer. “They’ve been chomping at the bit. We came out with a lot of intensity right off, and then I thought we got a little relaxed and didn’t have the intensity we had at the start of the game.”

Martinez finished with 21 points to lead five Central Aroostook scorers in double figures. Kasey Brewer added 16 and York 14, while Blake McCarthy scored 11 points and Logan McCarthy added 10.

Michael Little and Jacob Stevens each scored 11 points for 8-12 Machias, while Michael Jenkins added 10 points.

eclark@bangordailynews.net

990-8045

PANTHERS 82, BULLDOGS 52

Machias (8-12) Cen. Aroostook (19-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Little 4 16 2 7 11 Martinez 8 15 2 3 21

Stevens 4 8 3 4 11 Folsom 1 2 2

Lipton 3 5 0 0 6 York 7 13 14

Treat 1 4 1 2 3 McLghln 1 5 2

Jenkins 3 8 2 2 10 Vangel 0 0 0

Shults 4 10 0 0 9 Brewer 6 12 16

Richards 1 3 0 0 2 Thomas 0 2 0

Porter 0 1 0 0 0 Kelly 1 1 2

Spencer 0 2 0 0 0 Stiles 1 1 4

Footer 0 0 0 0

B.McCrthy 3 7 11

L.McCrthy 4 6 10

White 0 3 0 0

Totals 20 57 8 15 52 Totals 32 67 12 14 82

Machias 6 18 37 52

Central Aroostook 22 46 56 82

3-pt. goals – Machias (4-14): Jenkins 2-5, Little 1-4, Shults 1-4, Treat 0-1; Central Aroostook (6-26): Brewer 3-8, Martinez 3-9, Thomas 0-1, White 0-1, McLaughlin 0-3, York 0-4

TIGERS 61, HORNETS 48

Fort Fairfield (15-5) Ashland (15-5)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Everett 0 0 0 0 0 Beaulier 0 0

Edgecomb 1 1 0 0 2 Paradis 0 3 0

T. Noyes 3 6 1 1 7 Condon 0 0 0

Closson 2 4 3 6 7 J. Tarr 4 11 13

Thibeau 0 0 0 0 0 L.Belangr 3 7

Forsman 0 2 1 3 1 Gimbel 0 1 0

Churchill 0 0 0 0 0 Cote 4 10 8

Cresenzo 3 10 3 7 10 Milligan 0 0

Booth 7 12 0 0 15 Nemer 1 7 7

R. Noyes 4 6 1 2 9 Hafford 0 0 0

Sharpe 0 5 1 2 1 K. Tarr 0 0 0

NcNamee 0 0 0 0 0 Levesque 1 2

Dufour 4 12 1 3 9 J. Belangr 4 11

Baker 0 0 0 0

Totals 24 58 11 24 61 Totals 17 50 13 20 48

Fort Fairfield 15 33 45 61

Ashland 17 26 40 48

3-pt. goals – Fort Fairfield (2-8): Cresenzo 1-2, Booth 1-2, Closson 0-1, Dufour 0-1, Sharpe 0-2; Ashland (1-8): Nemer 1-3, Paradis 0-1, J. Tarr 0-1, Voyr 0-3