BANGOR – After proving in the semifinals that they could win without their star guard, the Brunswick Dragons may have thought they’d have to do it again early in Saturday night’s Eastern A final.

But after a scoreless first quarter, Ralph Mims scored 41 of Brunswick’s final 43 points, including 34 straight, to lead the second-seeded Dragons to their second state championship game in three years with a 54-42 victory over No. 4 Bangor at the Bangor Auditorium.

“I don’t care how many points I score, how many assists I have, how many blocks…” Mims said. “What matters to me is we just won the Eastern Maine championship.”

Mims, who also had 16 rebounds and five steals, scored all 25 of Brunswick’s points in the second and third quarters. For added measure, he smothered Bangor’s top scorer, Aaron Gallant (nine points), holding the junior without a field goal in the first half after he had scored 23 against Oxford Hills in the semifinals. P.J. Dowe led Bangor with 13 points.

While Mims’ teammates left most of the offense in his extremely capable hands, they gave him plenty of support on defense, limiting the Rams to 36 percent shooting from the floor.

“We really needed to buckle down defensively because they have such great perimeter shooters,” Hanson said. “We wanted to make sure that we protected the arc and really defend their 3-point shooters.”

“They contained our shooters and made us work very hard,” said Bangor coach Roger Reed. “We just didn’t have any answers for Ralph tonight.”

Mims missed his first six shots from the floor, yet Brunswick (20-1) managed to take an 11-5 lead on Phil Warren’s layup with 2:26 left in the first quarter. It would be the last points scored by someone other than Mims for more than 24 minutes.

The Maine Mr. Basketball favorite scored all 10 of the Dragons’ points in the second quarter, yet Dowe nearly matched him basket for basket to help the Rams (15-6) to a 23-21 halftime lead.

Brunswick unveiled a 1-2-1-1 fullcourt press in the third quarter, and that turned the tide. The pressure forced three consecutive Bangor turnovers early in the period as Brunswick took a 32-27 lead. Mims then drilled a fadeaway trey on his way to 15 points in the quarter and Brunswick carried a 36-32 advantage into the fourth quarter.

“We wanted to up-tempo them a little bit because they lull you to sleep offensively because they’re so efficient, so we wanted tomake them play a little bit faster,” Hanson said.

Mims added the first nine points of the fourth quarter. The senior’s tour-de-force ended when he dribbled around and through three defenders in the paint and spotted Justin Gauvin on the right block for a wide-open layup that made it 47-38 with 1:49 left.

rwhitehouse@sunjournal.com

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