Bangor High School teams have had the novelty of playing schoolboy basketball tournament games in their hometown for many years.

Yet, when it comes to basketball, the hallowed hoop hall known as the Bangor Auditorium has served as the home-away-from-home for many other championship teams during the last three decades.

The spectre of 30 years of frustration was chased out of the Auditorium Saturday night.

Bangor dug down during a determined defensive stand, shutting out Waterville for a span of seven minutes and wiping out an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit while rallying for a memorable 53-43 victory over Waterville in the Eastern Maine Class A championship game.

The win secured Bangor’s first regional title since 1962. Coach Roger Reed’s Rams carry a 17-4 record into Saturday’s 8:45 p.m. state title game against undefeated Western Maine champ South Portland (21-0) at Portland’s Cumberland County Civic Center.

Coach Ken Lindlof’s Panthers close out the season at 19-2.

Bangor players have heard the talk around town about the school’s unenviable tournament record. Now, they are the talk of the town.

“There’s sort of a syndrome going around that everybody seems to think that Bangor chokes when they get in the big games,” said Bangor junior Mark Reed. “Sometimes, they don’t realize how tough it is to come in here in these types of games when you’re playing against someone who wants it just as bad. I guess now we just proved to people that, hey, we can win the big game.”

Waterville appeared to be taking control in the third quarter Saturday night. The Panthers had seized the momentum and a six-point lead with nine unanswered points.

Rams 53, Panthers 43

Bangor boys Waterville

Name AG G AF F TP Name AG G AF F TP

B. Newman 11 7 2 2 16 L. Meader 11 2 2 2 7

Bradford 7 2 3 3 7 McDonald 7 3 1 0 6

Tennett 11 3 4 3 9 Jabar 10 3 1 1 7

Reed 16 6 5 1 13 Caron 8 4 3 0 10

Pickering 3 2 5 4 8 Hanson 9 3 0 0 8

Heistand 1 0 0 0 0 D. Meader 4 2 0 0 5

Subjoc 0 0 0 0 0 Dustin 0 0 0 0 0

Hildreth 0 0 0 0 0

Grondin 0 0 0 0 0

C. Scott 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 49 20 19 13 53 Totals 49 17 7 3 43

Bangor 12 24 30 53

Waterville 8 23 38 43

3-pt. goals: Bangor (0-4): B. Newman 0-1, Bradford 0-1, Tennett 0-1, Reed 0-1; Waterville (6-20): L. Meader 1-7, D. Meader 1-3, Jabar 0-1, Caron 2-3, Hanson 2-6