By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

AUGUSTA – Have you heard the one about the time Valley of Bingham loses the Western Class D tournament?

Neither has Western Class D for the last eight years.

Second-seeded Valley picked up its eight straight regional title with typical precision, beating No. 1 Pine Tree Academy, 64-45, Saturday night at the Augusta Civic Center.

Travis Hovey paced the Cavaliers (17-3) with 19 points and 12 rebounds and was named the tournament’s outstanding player. Cole Pullen added 11 off the bench.

“Once we get it down low to (Hovey) most teams don’t have a big guy to match up with him” said Valley coach Dwight Littlefield, whose team will face Central Aroostook for the state championship next week. “If he goes strong to the rim, nobody can really stop him.”

That’s not entirely true. Hovey stopped himself a few times, as he himself pointed out.

“That was our plan, to get it inside, but I missed a lot of easy ones, too,” said the junior center.

Valley jumped out to a 10-point lead after one, and while the Breakers would get as close as five in the second quarter, they were never able to seriously threaten Valley because the Cavs were blanketing their top scorer, Jerod Verrill. Verrill, who averaged 23 ppg this year, finished with just five last night.

“This is the first time in the almost two-and-a-half years since my team started to jell that we’ve been absolutely handled,” said Pine Tree coach Wayne Goodall, whose team was making its first Western Maine final appearance. “They handled us in every aspect of the game. They beat us at our own game, which is hard-nosed defense. They controlled the boards and I can’t do anything except say they played a great game.”

Ben Goodall led the Breakers (18-3) with 15 points and 12 rebounds.

Valley led by eight at halftime, then broke the game open with a 20-8 third quarter in which Hovey dominated the offensive glass and Pullen and Mark Hyland (seven points) provided support with penetration and perimeter shooting.

“They just keep throwing them at you, one right after another,” said Wayne Goodall. “Except for Hovey and a couple of others, there’s really not much change right down the bench, and it wears you down.”