BANGOR – For the first two quarters of their game with Central of Corinth Friday night at Husson College’s Newman Gymnasium, the Bangor Christian boys basketball team looked like anything but the defending Class D Eastern Maine champs.

But after a halftime discussion that focused on better shot selection and more team, rather than individual play, the Patriots looked more like one of the better Class D teams in the second half and ran off to a 54-33 win over the Red Devils.

The 8-1 Patriots led 23-14 at the half but got off to a quick start in the third quarter. They were led by the play of junior wing man Josh Madden and the shooting of David Chrisos.

Madden finished the night with 11 points but also had 10 rebounds and five steals as the Patriots stepped up their defensive pressure in the second half.

“We were off a little at the beginning,” Madden said. “We worked hard to get back into it.”

Chrisos in particular improved his play in the second half. All 15 of his points came after the intermission. After shooting 0 of 5 from the floor in the first two quarters, the senior guard connected on 6 of 8 from the floor in the second half, including two 3-pointers.

Senior Greg Patterson is charged with running the Bangor Christian offense. Instead of running a smooth machine in the first half, Patterson admits the Patriots were running wild. Patterson himself was one of the culprits, tossing up two ill-advised 3-point attempts.

“We didn’t seem to get our effective offense set up,” the 6-foot-4 point guard said. “We were trying to take it a lot of one-on-one instead of setting the ball up, moving the ball around and getting it to different people.”

Patterson said coach Gary Colson addressed that problem at the half and urged his team to step up its defensive intensity.

Patterson opened the second half driving to the basket for layups or layoffs to teammates. He finished with nine points, as did D.J. McCleary who also grabbed five offensive rebounds.

The 1-8 Red Devils were missing two starters due to illness. Coach Eric Smith was forced to start three sophomores and two juniors with much of the team’s scoring punch left at home.

The Patriots didn’t help the youthful Red Devils. BC repeatedly changed its defense to confuse Central, going from a 3-2 zone to man-to-man and sprinkling in a little 1-3-1 zone.

Central had difficulty getting into its offense and the taller and stronger Patriots further challenged the Red Devils physically.

Bangor Christian had doubled its halftime lead to 18 points at the end of three quarters and emptied its bench in the fourth.

Sophomore guard Joey Kane scored 10 points for the Red Devils.

“We’re young and I think they’re still getting used to the speed of the game,” Smith said. “[Bangor Christian] is pretty strong and they play physical.”

PATRIOTS 54, RED DEVILS 33

Central (1-8) Bangor Christian (8-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Connolly 0 1 0 0 0 Astle 0 0 0

Macomber 0 1 2 4 2 Madden 5 16 11

Strout 3 9 0 5 6 Denbow 1 2 2

Palmer 2 7 0 0 4 Cole 0 1 0

Kane 4 6 1 2 10 Patterson 4 7 9

Chambers 1 5 0 0 2 Frost 0 0 0

Elliott 2 9 1 1 5 Chrisos 6 13 15

Brown 2 5 0 0 4 E. Sobey 0 0

Smith 1 6 0 2

B. Sobey 3 6 6

McCleary 4 7 9

Totals 14 43 4 12 33 24 58 54

Central 6 14 25 33

Bangor Christian 15 23 43 54

3-pt. goals: Central (1-2): Kane 1-1, Palmer 0-1; Bangor Christian (3-12): Chrisos 2-4, Madden 1-4, Patterson 2-2, Denbow 0-1, McCleary 0-1

Attendance: 350 (est.)

Preliminary: Bangor Christian JVs 46-35