BANGOR – The Bangor Christian boys basketball team used its superior size and 22 points from shooting guard Josh Madden to get a 65-53 win over sixth-seeded Central Aroostook of Mars Hill Thursday night in an Eastern Maine Class D boys tournament semifinal.

The seventh-seeded Patriots, the defending regional champs, will play top-seeded East Grand of East Danforth Saturday at approximately 11 a.m. in the EM final.

Bangor Christian’s starting line includes 6-foot-4 senior Greg Patterson, 6-3 Eric Sobey and 6-4 senior Ben Sobey. They completely dominated the rebounding portion of the game against the Panthers whose tallest starter was 6-0 junior Patrick Walsh.

“We came out strong on the boards. We knew we could control the boards. We knew if we could get all of the boards we could get easy layups,” Madden said.

The result was a 27-13 rebounding advantage for Bangor Christian that included 10 offensive rebounds.

None bigger came 1:41 when Ben Sobey rebounded David Chrisos’ missed free throw and put the ball back in to give the Patriots a 62-48 lead with the Panthers making a bid to get back in the game.

“We kinda thought that we might be able to exploit [our size advantage] coming in. We’ve done a better job of that the last three or four games,” BC coach Gary Colson said.

The Panthers were also without Walsh for large portions of the game due to foul trouble. When on the floor Walsh was effective despite giving away so much size inside. The junior scored 13 points, many coming on twisting, spinning moves inside before fouling out with 6:39 to go in the game.

Walsh’s replacement stood just 5-8 and had the task of taking on Ben Sobey who towered over him.

Madden showed his basketball smarts as well as playing ability by recognizing the mismatch and quickly getting the ball to Sobey for an easy bucket before defensive help could arrive.

“We got killed on the boards plain and simple,” Panthers coach Tim Brewer said. “[Walsh] probably only played a quarter and a half and we can’t win a ball game if he’s only going to play a quarter and a half.”

Bryan Grew scored 19 points to lead the Panthers, including a 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer that was reminiscent of his heroics in the quarterfinals when his 3-pointer at the end of the game beat Van Buren.

Ben Sobey and Chrisos finished with 11 points apiece for the Patriots and Patterson had 10.

PATRIOTS 65, PANTHERS 53

Bangor Christian (17-4) Central Aroostook (16-5)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP

Astle 0 1 0 0 0 Faulkner 0 1 0

Madden 8 16 4 5 22 Clockedile 0 1 0

Denbow 0 0 0 0 0 McLaughlin 0 1 0

Cole 0 0 0 0 0 York 3 10 1 8

Patterson 3 14 3 4 10 Grew 6 19 19

Frost 0 0 2 2 2 Martinez 0 0 0

Chrisos 5 9 1 3 11 Woodworth 4 9 9

A.Phinney 0 0 0 0 0 Chavez 1 1 2

E.Sobey 2 4 0 0 5 Shaw 0 1 0 0

B.Sobey 4 7 3 3 11 Walsh 5 10 3 13

McCleary 2 4 0 0 4 Kilcollins 1 2

London 0 0 0 0

Totals 24 55 13 17 65 20 56 9 17 53

Bangor Christian 17 31 43 65

Central Aroostook 11 18 33 53

3-pt. goals ? Bangor Christian (4-18): Madden 2-6, Patterson 1-7, Astle 0-1, E. Sobey 1-1, McCleary 0-1, Chrisos 0-2; CAHS (4-17): Grew 2-6, York 1-5, Faulkner 0-1, Clockedile 0-1, McLaughlin 0-1, Shaw 0-1, Woodworth 1-2