By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

Mapped out solely in the brackets, Oxford Hills’ trip to the Bangor Auditorium for tonight’s Eastern Class A semifinals has been the shortest of the four remaining contestants.

Measured in miles and hours belted to their bus seat, though, and the Vikings have the unwanted distinction of having the longest journey to “the Mecca” today.

Downtown Hampden is just a stone’s throw from the Aud, and one can literally see the venerable arena’s facade from the heart of downtown Brewer. Gardiner has about a 75 minute bus ride to Bangor, but at least 95 percent of their trip will be spent on I-95.

The second-seeded Vikings have a two-and-a-half hour trip to look forward to, so coach Scott Graffam’s itinerary this afternoon is designed to break up the monotony a bit. First, they’ll have dinner at a Winslow restaurant, then make a quick stop at Colby College for a team shootaround before making the final leg of their trip to Bangor.

Graffam knows how important it will be that his team doesn’t do as much starting and stopping once their game with No. 6 Gardiner tips off at 7 p.m.

“I think the key for us is to play as aggressively as they do,” Graffam said. “They’re a very aggressive team and a strong team.”

Oxford Hills (16-3) knows all too well just how aggressive the Tigers (14-6) can be. Gardiner attacked the basket, pounded the ball inside and went to the free throw line 23 more times than the Vikings and overcame a 13-point deficit early in the second half to win the only regular season meeting between the two teams on Jan. 21, 65-58.

Graffam points out, however, that that was a very different Oxford Hills team back then, one that was in the midst of losing two out of three and was still searching for a defense that it could play comfortably and consistently.

“We were still trying to zone press and put a lot of pressure on the ball at that time and we hadn’t learned yet that we couldn’t do that,” he said. “We’re going to make (Gardiner) grind it out, now.”

After a loss to Cony the following week, the Vikes scrapped the zone and went strictly man-to-man on defense. Only one team, Lewiston, has topped the 50-point mark in the 10 games since then. In the quarterfinals last week, they held Cony to just 26 points.

Gardiner coach Dana Doran sees a different Oxford Hills team and enough change in his own squad from late last January to tonight’s sequel to make the first result irrelevant.

“I think at this point, we’ve got to throw that out the window,” Doran said. “We had a good night that night against Oxford Hills, but this is a young team. It’s time to let these kids know it’s not about what you did yesterday.”

Doran isn’t kidding about how young his team is. Freshman Kyle Stilphen starts at the point, while 6-7 sophomore Sean McNally, who had 19 points, 16 rebounds and five blocks in the Tigers’ 61-49 upset win over No. 3 Brunswick in the quarterfinals, is the focal point at both ends of the floor.

“We have three kids whose ages average out to 15 1/2, plus two upperclassmen, one (forward Eric Collins) who didn’t play last year and one (forward Craig Toulouse) who is really only in his second year playing competitive basketball,” Doran said. “I think we’re at the point now where these kids have been playing together for a while now and are figuring out what they have to do.”

Like the Vikings, the Tigers like to score in transition with Collins (15 points against Brunswick) and McNally. In the halfcourt, McNally is a threat inside and on the perimeter, while Toulouse (15 points against Brunswick) will test the interior of the Viking defense. Josh Powell and Corey Saunders, keys to Oxford Hills’ defensive effort against Cony, could be difference-makers again tonight.

Gardiner’s defense will also be tested by what Doran called the Vikings’ “three-headed snake”, senior guard Matt McDonnell (20.8 ppg) and senior forwards Leif (11.8 ppg, 6.7 rpg) and Thomas Kothe (13.3 ppg, 7.9 rpg). All three are capable of lighting it up from the perimeter and finishing in transition.

Oxford Hills shot just 28 percent from the floor in last week’s win over Cony and Doran wants his team to make them struggle again tonight by getting a hand in every jump-shooter’s face and keeping the Kothes off the offensive boards.

In the other semifinal, No. 13 Brewer (11-9) faces No. 9 Hampden Academy (16-4). Both teams have already pulled off two upsets to get this far, the Witches knocking off No. 4 Messalonskee and No. 12 Leavitt, the Broncos ousting No. 8 Mt. Blue and No. 1 Bangor.