BANGOR – Through three quarters Saturday morning at Bangor Auditorium, Mt. Blue played something close to the perfect basketball game.

Then the Cougars ran afoul of Brunswick’s Ralph Mims, who is the Eastern Class A tournament’s version of the perfect storm.

Mims scored 14 consecutive points, including 10 to christen the fourth quarter, and the No. 2 Dragons escaped the No. 10 Cougars 43-37 in a boys’ quarterfinal.

Mt. Blue led 31-30 with eight minutes remaining before Mims, the explosively quick 6-foot-3 guard coveted by five major NCAA Division I programs, embarked upon his late binge.

Held without a field goal for nearly 19 mid-game minutes, Mims nevertheless finished with 22 points, eight rebounds and five steals for Brunswick (18-1).

“He made the difference in the defensive end,” Mt. Blue coach Jim Bessey said. “He gets their transition game going, and nobody else in Maine has a player that quick in the open floor.”

Brunswick advances to face another middle-seed KVAC rival, No. 6 Cony, in Friday’s semifinals. The Dragons seek their third straight trip to the regional final.

Their latest journey to the state’s big dance wasn’t a waltz thanks to the Cougars, who ran when they could and drained the air from the ball when they wanted. At the end of the third period, Mt. Blue stood at better than 60 percent proficiency from the field, and Brian Wells’ redirection of a rare miss at the third-period buzzer whipped the Cougars’ raucous student section into a frenzy.

Mims silenced the din with two free throws, giving Brunswick the lead for good with 7:28 left. Just over a minute later, he followed a steal with a coast-to-coast drive for two, then stuck a jumper in the paint to make it a five-point advantage.

“I try to stay within myself, because I know teams are coming after me,” Mims said. “I couldn’t find my rhythm, so I just tried to get in the rhythm my teammates created for me.”

Ted Neil directed the Cougars (13-7) with 16 points, nine rebounds and five blocked shots. Wells added 13 points.

Neil’s two free throws brought Mt. Blue within three, but they were the Cougars’ only points in the first seven minutes of the fateful fourth quarter. Mt. Blue missed two inside shots that would have trimmed the deficit to one and went 2-for-11 in the period.

Meanwhile, Mims maintained the hot hand with a short leaner and another deft drive.

Jesse Kaplan (eight points) and Kevin Scully (six) helped the Dragons keep their fire burning with Mims under wraps, a defensive fury fueled by Mt. Blue’s Zach Frechette.

“Keeping the score in the 30s and 40s is what Mt. Blue wanted,” Brunswick coach Todd Hanson said. “We had to keep increasing the tempo defensively. Then Ralph was able to start to attack.”

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SUMMARY

Brunswick, 43-37

Eastern A boys’ quarterfinal

MT. BLUE (37) – Simpson 0-1-1; S. Wells 0-0-0; Moloney 0-0-0; B. Wells 6-1-13; Neil 7-2-16; Frechette 2-0-4; Lake 0-1-1; Gaither 1-0-2; Tinguely 0-0-0. Totals: 16-5-37.

BRUNSWICK (43) – Lemont 0-0-0; Kaplan 4-0-8; Gauvin 1-0-2; Mims 8-5-22; Scully 3-0-6; Eichinger 1-0-2; Warren 1-1-3. Totals: 18-6-43.

Mt. Blue 11 7 13 6-37

Brunswick 17 7 6 13-43

Three-point goals: Brunswick-Mims.