BANGOR – The only empty seats in the house are in the rafters. Substitutions are being made while a slender 14-year-old blonde boy adjusts the waistband on his shorts and circles the area in front of the scorer’s table.

He looks up at the Bangor Auditorium scoreboard, that shows six seconds left, and then looks up into the bleachers, and says “Wow” to no one in particular.

“This is the greatest feeling ever,” said 5-foot-7 Bangor guard Tommy Waterman minutes after his team clinched the Eastern Maine Class A championship Saturday night. “The team’s been great to us. They treat us like everyone else.

“As a freshman, I thought I’d be playing with the freshman team,” he continued after receiving his medal. “I was so surprised when I found out I was on the varsity.”

Waterman, with classmate and fellow guard Mike Arsenault, are the only two freshmen on Bangor’s undefeated boys team.

“They’re not typical freshmen,” said coach Roger Reed of Waterman and 6-1 forward Mike Arsenault. “They play with a lot more composure. They would have started with any team in Eastern Maine.”

Arsenault spent his Saturday night guarding Medomak Valley’s star senior forward Josh Nash, who has a full scholarship to play basketball at the University of Maine next year, and held him to 21 points on an 8-for-22 effort from the field. The 15-year-old Arsenault had eight points and 13 rebounds.

“Wow,” said Arsenault, rolling his eyes in disbelief when told of his stats. “Coach told me to stay with Josh Nash. Everybody’s been telling me to stay with him. I just tried to stay with him and get those rebounds.”

Arsenault is a quiet player who contains his man and collects rebounds without much notice – until certain moments when it all comes together.

With 33 seconds left in the third quarter, Waterman missed the second of two foul shots but Bangor retained possesion. Waterman, at the top of the key, whipped the ball to Arsenault, who passed it off to senior forward Matt Kinney. Kinney held the ball before taking a 3-point shot at the top of the key.

The ball hung in the air, destined to fall short of its mark, when Arsenault soared in from the low-post and sunk the ball at the buzzer. Bangor’s lead: 47-31.

“Most of the time, coach has been telling me not to worry about points this year, and to concentrate on my defense,” said Arsenault.

“I told him not to worry about the misses,” Reed recalled. “I told him, `you’re as good as any player out there.’ ”

Even for a freshman.