BANGOR – The undefeated Central Aroostook boys basketball team went into the year’s Eastern Maine Class D tournament as the two-time defending state champion.

That kind of resume, however, doesn’t intimidate an opponent with four seniors and one junior in its starting lineup.

No. 2 Deer Isle-Stonington took a big lead over the No. 3 Panthers of Mars Hill in Thursday’s semifinal and then withstood a CAHS comeback for a 76-63 victory and a berth in the EM Class D final.

“We’ve played together for a long time,” said Mariner senior forward Shane Eaton, who had 16 points and seven rebounds. “We do have a lot of seniors and that kind of helps, having all the veterans.”

Junior center Collin Ciomei poured in 23 points and his brother, senior guard Bryant Ciomei, turned in 15 points and eight rebounds to lead 20-0 DI-Stonington into Saturday’s EM final matchup against No. 1 Schenck of East Millinocket. The game will start 15 minutes after the awards ceremony for the 9:05 a.m. girls’ final.

“We’re real confident after playing this well today,” Bryant Ciomei said. “Real confident.”

The Mariners looked it, even when Panther senior Tim Carlson sparked the Panthers (20-1) in the fourth quarter.

DI-Stonington had a 21-point lead early in the final period when Carlson started the rally with two early 3-pointers. Central Aroostook’s Manny Martinez hit another to cut the Mariner lead to 58-44.

Carlson, who wound up with 15 of his team-high 19 points in the fourth, converted a 3-point play later in the period to make it 60-50.

“They swarmed on their defense in the second half,” Bryan Ciomei said. “We didn’t see that coming and it caught us off guard a little bit.”

Collin Ciomei fouled out with two minutes left in the game. At that point the Mariners had just a 65-55 lead but they were already in the double bonus.

DI-S made five of seven free throws in the last two minutes.

Carlson nailed a 3-pointer with 17 seconds left to cut the lead to nine, but he was whistled for an intentional foul later and DI-Stonington’s Rob Brown responded with two free throws.

DI-S never went on an extended run to earn its lead but shot well from the field, going 28-for-45 for 62.2 percent.

The Mariners worked well inside against the Central Aroostook zone, dishing off to each other in the post, and went 4-for-8 from 3-point range.

“We tried to work their defense,” Eaton said. “We knew they were probably going to play zone against us because we had a lot of advantages against a man defense. So we worked their zone and got some good shots out of it.”

The 6-foot Carlson hit just one of his seven field-goal attempts in the first half with the 6-foot-4 Collin Ciomei guarding him.

“We decided to go big on him,” Bryant Ciomei said. “I think we got on his shot early and threw him off his game.”

DI-Stonington had a 36-21 rebounding advantage.

MARINERS 76, PANTHERS 63

Cen. Aroostook (20-1) DI-Stonington (20-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Walling 0 1 0 0 0 Powers 4 5 9

York 5 9 5 6 16 C.Ciomei 10 14 23

Brewer 0 0 0 0 0 J. Eaton 0 6

Carlson 6 19 4 8 19 Brown 2 4 7

Clockedile 1 6 2 2 5 Hardie 0 1 0

Richards 0 0 0 0 0 B.Ciomei 6 10 2 3 15

Martinez 4 8 0 0 11 S. Eaton 6 10 1 4 16

L.McCrthy 0 2 0 0 0

Kelley 6 12 0 0 12

Totals 22 57 11 16 63 28 45 16 30 76

Central Aroostook 14 25 35 63

DI-Stonington 19 38 54 76

3-pt. goals – Central Aroostook (8-22): Martinez 3-6, Carlson 3-12, York 1-2, Clockedile 1-2; DI-Stonington (4-8): S. Eaton 3-4, B. Ciomei 1-3, C. Ciomei 0-1