PORTLAND – Mick DiStasio had no interest in advancing the Bangor boys basketball team’s pursuit of perfection.

So the 6-foot-3 junior forward did what he does best after intermission Tuesday night, scoring 19 of his game-high 23 points as Cheverus of Portland rallied past the previously undefeated Rams 49-41 in the Class A state championship game at Cumberland County Civic Center.

The win gave 19-3 Cheverus its first state title since 1997 and ended 21-1 Bangor’s pursuit of a second-straight crown along with the Rams’ 31-game winning streak.

“The beauty of Bangor is they’re so far up [north] that we didn’t know they were supposed to be unbeatable,” said Cheverus coach Bob Brown.

“You’d be surprised how many of my kids told me they knew they were going to win.”

Bangor had control of this game at intermission, as senior guard Jon McAllian scored the final eight points of the second quarter on a deep jumper and two 3-point goals to give the Rams a 24-14 lead.

Cheverus had gone 0-for-7 from beyond the 3-point arc before intermission, but made 6-of-9 from long range after the break as the Stags began setting more screens to free up DiStasio and Co.

“They hit their shots down the stretch, and we were unable to get a hand in their face on a lot of shots in the second half,” said Bangor center Ryan Weston, one of 11 Ram seniors playing their final high school game. “They’re a great team. Take nothing away from them. They executed better than we did in the second half, and we couldn’t get the momentum back.”

That execution came on both ends of the court, as Cheverus also heightened its defensive pressure in the second half, and that prevented Bangor from developing consistency in its halfcourt offense.

Bangor managed just 17 points after the break – and only five field goals.

“We’re a pretty good defensive team, and in the first half we didn’t have our hand above the ball and they were hitting threes on us,” said DiStasio. “In the second half we were getting our hands above the ball, and they couldn’t get their shots off as easy.”

DiStasio, the Western A tournament MVP, hit a jumper from the left wing and the first of his three 3-pointers of the final half as Cheverus halved Bangor’s lead in the opening 67 seconds of the third quarter.

By the end of the period, Bangor’s lead was just 30-29.

Weston did get open underneath for two early baskets in the fourth quarter, but those were the last times the Bangor center saw the ball in a halfcourt set. The Rams committed eight turnovers in the fourth quarter, and Cheverus took the lead for good at 37-34 on a 3-pointer by Doug Alston with 5:27 remaining.

“They had height on us and were physical and stronger than us,” said DiStasio. “But we knew, if we put pressure on them they weren’t quite as quick as we were and that would get to them.”

Two free throws by Lee Suvlu did pull Bangor within 37-36, but while the Rams followed with three consecutive turnovers DiStasio answered with another 3-pointer and two free throws to extend the margin to 42-36 with 2:48 to play.

“We weren’t getting him decent shots in the first half,” said Brown of DiStasio. “In the second half, he got decent looks, and then when they took them away he was able to take it to the rim and create.”

Cheverus followed with a 7-for-9 effort from the free-throw line in the final 2:20 and went 10 of 12 overall in the fourth quarter.

“I’m not so sure if it was what they did or what we didn’t do,” said Weston. “We didn’t move the ball real well. We weren’t real patient. When we worked it around we didn’t get the shots we wanted, and we took too many quick shots. But give a lot of credit to them. They played in-your-face defense and forced us into some real bad shots.”

Alston added 12 points for Cheverus, while Suvlu paced Bangor with 13 points while McAllian scored 12 and Weston contributed nine points and nine rebounds.

McAllian scored 11 of his points in the second quarter while Bangor’s halfcourt defense dominated the first half.

The 6-5 senior guard broke a 10-10 tie with a 3-pointer from the left wing early in the second quarter, then closed out the period with the long-range brand of instant offense that has earned him a scholarship from the University of Maine – an eight-point individual run capped off by a 3-pointer from beyond the NBA arc.

Cheverus, meanwhile, had almost no luck with its halfcourt offense against Bangor’s taller defense early in the game and mustered most of its first-half scoring in transition after forcing turnovers from the Rams.

Cheverus was just 7 of 20 from the field in the first half, while Bangor also had a 14-4 rebounding advantage.

“I thought our defense was very good the first half, but I think we might have gotten tired in the second half and started getting on our heels and not attacking quite as much,” said Bangor coach Roger Reed. “That all plays into it. That’s why they’re 16-year-old kids.

“We didn’t have a very good game tonight. We had a great first half, but we didn’t have a very good game.”

eclark@bangordailynews.net

990-8045

STAGS 49, RAMS 41

Bangor (21-1) Cheverus (19-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

R. Larchlle 0 0 0 0 0 Alston 5 12 12

McAllian 4 10 1 3 12 Hendrix 0 0 0

Zolper 1 3 2 2 4 White 1 2 3

Suvlu 4 10 5 5 13 Barwise 2 6 7

Bernstein 1 1 1 2 3 DiStasio 7 14 6 7 23

Weston 4 8 1 3 9 Faithfull 0 2

Foley 1 2 0 2

Totals 14 32 10 15 41 Totals 16 39 11 14 49

Bangor 10 24 30 41

Cheverus 8 14 29 49

3-pt. goals – Bangor (3-12): McAllian 3-6, Zolper 0-2, Suvlu 0-4; Cheverus (6-16): DiStasio 3-7, White 1-1, Alston 1-3, Barwise 1-4, Faithfull 0-1