BANGOR – There are two things Bangor rarely does – play zone defense and lose at the Bangor Auditorium.
On Saturday, they did both.
In a tournament filled with upsets, No. 9 Hampden Academy pulled off the biggest of all, knocking No. 1 Bangor out of the final Eastern Class A tournament to be held in its home town, 44-40.
“Unreal,” said Hampden senior guard Blaine Meehan, who led the Broncos with 12 points. “I just can’t explain. It was an all-around team effort.”
Bangor, which had beaten Hampden three times during the regular season, played a 2-3 zone the entire game solely to contain Hampden’s 6-10 center, Jordan Cook (11 points, 10 rebounds). As a result, Hampden’s guards had countless open looks from the outside, but couldn’t take advantage and trailed most of the way.
But the Rams (17-2) failed to get any offense going outside of three players – Mark Socoby (24 points, 10 rebounds), Aaron Gallant (nine points) and Andrew Trundy (seven points) and thus never led by more than six.
A Meehan jumper pulled the Broncos (16-4) within one with just over five minutes remaining. Josh McNutt then gave them the lead by knocking down a pair of free throws to make it 32-31 with 4:08 left.
“Those two free throws turned the tide,” said Hampden coach Russ Bartlett. “We got the lead for the first time and the kids got some confidence.”
The lead changed hands two more times, but some clutch free throw shooting (8-for-10) by the Broncos down the stretch kept them in front.
A Max Silver follow-up to a Meehan steal and missed layup put them up, 42-37, with 35 seconds left, and a Jay Uhrin layup with six seconds left finished the Rams off.
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