AUGUSTA – Gorham senior Justin Brown had the green light to shoot the 3-pointer Saturday afternoon against Fryeburg Academy. His coach, Kevin Jenkins, simply enforced the equivalent of a 25 mile per hour speed limit.

“Fryeburg plays a nice 2-3 zone. The danger of playing against a zone like that is that you don’t want to fall in love with shooting from the perimeter,” Jenkins said. “You can end up shooting yourself out of a game.”

Brown chose his spots carefully, draining two uncontested shots from beyond the arc in the opening quarter and repeating that performance in the third period. Those outbursts from the 6-foot-3 forward with the feathery touch nudged No. 3 Gorham to a workmanlike 57-43 triumph over No. 6 Fryeburg in the Western Class B quarterfinals at Augusta Civic Center.

Gorham will face unbeaten and second-seeded Mountain Valley in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The defending regional champion Falcons survived a scare from York in their game Saturday.

With his first salvo putting Gorham on the scoreboard and the second punctuating a five-point possession after a technical foul against Fryeburg coach Sedge Saunders, Brown boosted Gorham (17-2) to a 14-5 lead in the first six minutes.

Fryeburg (8-11) never whittled the gap smaller than five points thereafter, although the Raiders fought through 25 turnovers and chronic foul trouble to make an admirable showing in their program’s first quarterfinal appearance since 1988.

“We had a lot of respect for them,” Jenkins said. “When they had their whole team together this season, they were tough. They lost five games by three points or less.”

This was Gorham’s third double-digit victory over Fryeburg, however.

“We felt coming in that we could play with anybody,” Saunders said. “Just about every game this season was a battle.”

Martin Steinbuck did most of the damage down low for Fryeburg with 17 points and 16 rebounds. Fellow exchange students Victor Karpenko (12 points) and Johannes Gotzler (9) also kept the Raiders within striking distance.

But the Rams exhibited more balance, with a different tournament-tested player leading the way in each quarter. Brown scored 10 of his team-high 16 points in the first.

Ben Thayer (15 points) and Josh Tanguay (12) combined for 13 in the second period, inflating Gorham’s lead to 31-22.

Brown drained two more treys in the third period, and his efforts were more crucial than ever with senior Tim Atwood sidelined by pneumonia.

“Tim hit five 3-pointers the last time we played Fryeburg. He helped us loosen up their zone, which is what Justin did tonight,” said Jenkins. “I thought he took smart shots. They were timely.”

Kurt Randall scored six of his seven points in the fourth quarter, while Thayer went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line. Sophomore Max Bass provided clean point guard play, dishing out eight assists.

Fryeburg held Gorham to 39 percent shooting and enjoyed a modest advantage on the boards, belying the Raiders’ lack of postseason experience.

“We did a lot to prepare for this atmosphere. We practiced on the big floor at St. Joseph’s College and played a controlled scrimmage at Bridgton Academy against some superior athletes,” Saunders said. “We came up and watched our girls play last night. We felt pretty good.”

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