BANGOR – The Bangor Christian boys basketball team has a reputation for being big and for their ability to use that size to score.

After Thursday night’s performance against Shead of Eastport at Husson College’s Newman Gymnasium, the Patriots may be building a reputation for their defensive abilities as well.

The seventh-seeded Patriots combined a strong team defensive effort in the second half with the offensive exploits of Josh Madden to turn away the 10th-seeded Tigers 61-52 before a crowd of 600 in an Eastern Maine Class D preliminary game.

The Patriots move on to play Calvary Chapel of Orrington in the quarterfinals Monday night at 8:35 at the Bangor Auditorium. Second-seeded Calvary Chapel defeated Machias Thursday night 57-46 in overtime in a preliminary game.

Bangor Christian abandoned the man-to-man defense they had played in the first half, switching to a 1-2-2 zone. The Tigers, at times, appeared unsure of how to attack the defense. Scorers Jason Bones, who, finished with 16 points and Ben Maloney, who had 22, stopped getting the ball in the positions to score.

“We didn’t react to it very well,” Shead coach Paul Theriault said. “We haven’t seen a 1-2-2 this year. We didn’t run. It kept pushing us outside and we didn’t attack off of it.”

Meanwhile, Madden was having a dream night. Not only was he turning in a 24-point performance, the 6-foot-1 junior was active on the boards pulling down 10 rebounds, four of the offensive variety that led to easy lay ups for points.

“Tonight was a playoff game, so we had a lot of energy coming out,” Madden said. “We knew we had to play strong on the offensive boards and the defensive boards so everybody was going to the glass.”

The 15-4 Patriots had threatened to put the game away before the end of the first half.

Madden scored four quick points to start the second quarter and senior David Chrisos (14 points) chipped in with a basket as Bangor Christian rolled out to a 21-12 lead.

But Maloney and Bones brought Shead back. The 11-8 Tigers went on an 11-0 run to take a 23-21 lead before Chrisos nailed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Patriots a 24-23 halftime lead.

The Patriots also got an excellent effort off the bench from freshman Eric Sobey who scored six points in the second half and grabbed five rebounds while his brother, senior Ben Sobey, finished with identical numbers.

Point guard Greg Patterson scored 10 points for Bangor Christian and did an excellent job of stepping into the middle defensively to contest shots.

“This is huge,” Chrisos said. “This gives us great confidence going into the Auditorium. I thought we played a great game. Everyone played well. Eric did a good job coming off the bench for us.”

PATRIOTS 61, TIGERS 52

Shead (11-8) Bangor Christian (15-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Maloney 9 23 2 3 22 Astle 0 0 0

Demolet 0 0 0 0 0 Madden 9 17 24

Barnard 0 0 0 0 0 Cole 0 0 1

Cox 0 0 0 0 0 Patterson 3 10 10

Smith 0 0 0 0 0 Chrisos 5 13 14

MacDonald 2 3 2 3 7 E. Sobey 1 6

Bones 5 13 5 6 16 B. Sobey 3 6

Ellington 0 0 0 0 0 McClearey 0 0

Constant 3 13 0 0 7

Demmons 0 1 0 0 0

Marshall 0 3 0 0 0

Totals 19 56 9 12 52 21 51 13 19 61

Shead 8 23 31 52

Bangor Christian 13 24 40 61

3-pt. goals: Shead (4-18): Maloney 2-7, Bones 1-5, Constant 1-5, MacDonald 0-1; Bangor Christian (6-22): Chrisos 2-7, Madden 2-7, Patterson 1-7, E. Sobey 1-1

Attendance: 600