By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

BANGOR – The demons that had haunted the Oxford Hills Vikings in recent years at the Bangor Auditorium came back to visit them one last time.

In a throwback to many of their recent offensive struggles in the now former home of the Eastern Class A tournament, the second-seeded Vikings shot 4-for-32 from the floor in the second half and were helpless as No. 9 Hampden Academy completed its Cinderella story with a 47-40 win Monday night.

Jordan Cook scored 14 of his game-high 16 points in the second half, adding 17 rebounds and four blocks, to lead the Broncos to their first Eastern A championship ever and their first regional crown since they were in Class B in 1982.

“Jordan asserted himself and rebounded the ball like a man in the second half and got himself some good touches and finally started making some baskets,” said Hampden coach Ross Bartlett.

“We were just more patient (in the second half),” said Cook. “We weren’t taking quick shots, and just swinging the ball around and looking for stuff inside.”

Matt McDonnell led the Vikings with 12 points, while Leif Kothe added 10. Blaine Meehan added 11 points for the Broncos.

Cook stayed in the game despite picking up his fourth foul with 7:10 to play. His presence was more noticeable on the defensive end than the offensive end, as the Vikings had a number of shots blocked or altered or their shooting rhythm changed by the 6-foot-10 junior.

“We didn’t shoot it. We had tremendous opportunities to shoot the ball well,” said Oxford Hills coach Scott Graffam. “We missed layups and foul shots (11-for-19) and wide-open jump shots.”

“I wasn’t surprised (Bartlett kept him in),” Cook said. “I think he trusted me to stay behind my man and not reach in and go over the back, and that was key for us.”

Hampden had the cold shooting touch early. Opponents struggled to score on the Vikings throughout the tournament, and that carried over to the opening quarter last night. Hampden shot just 2-for-9 from the floor and trailed 8-4 after the first eight minutes.

With Corey Saunders and Chris McVety alternating turns leaning on Cook, the Broncos couldn’t get anything going inside with their big men. Oxford Hills also did an excellent job keeping him off the offensive boards.

The Vikings (17-4) picked their spots to take it to the hoop on Cook wisely in the first half. Josh Powell found a cutting McDonnell on a baseline out of bounds play for the KVAC Player of the Year’s first hoop of the game two minutes into the second quarter. Thomas Kothe followed with a nifty baseline drive to give Oxford Hills a 15-7 lead.

Off the bench, Kelvin Decato and McVety chipped in four points apiece in the quarter. McVety’s last two came off a nice inside feed from McDonnell that put the Vikings up eight late in the half.

Hampden (18-4) shot just 24 percent from the floor in the first half, but the Broncos got to the line enough (6-for-11) to keep Oxford Hills within six, 23-17, at halftime.

The Broncos began the second half with a 9-2 run, getting putbacks from Cook and Meehan, an inside hoop from Cook and a lay-in by Pat Moran that gave them their first lead, 26-25, with 3:38 left in the third quarter. Oxford Hills missed 14 of its 15 shots in the period, yet they held a one-point lead, 30-29, heading into the final frame.

Leif Kothe drove to the hoop and drew Cook’s fourth personal foul 50 seconds into the fourth quarter. Bartlett elected to keep him in the game, and McDonnell immediately attacked the middle of the Hampden defense with a spin-in-the-lane pull-up that gave the Vikings a 34-31 lead.

“We struggle offensively when he’s not on the floor,” Bartlett said. “The way he was rebounding, it was a gamble I thought we’d have to take if we were going to win this game.”

“They’re not going to call a fifth foul on him up here. I’ve been here long enough to know that that was not going to be a factor in this game, which I think is a good thing,” Graffam said. “I’m not downing the officials at all. I’m just saying the game should be decided by the children, not by the officials, and it was.”

With Cook still on the floor but somewhat shackled by the foul trouble, Hampden still responded with a 9-0 run that gave it the lead for good.

Ironically, Cook didn’t figure into the game-turning sequence offensively. Josh McNutt got it started with a pull-up jumper, then Meehan followed with a putback of his own miss to put the Broncos ahead to stay.

“We did a good job of containing the big kid most of the game. It was just a question of not being able to score,” Graffam said. “It caught up with us.”

The Broncos led by as much as six late in the quarter. McDonnell gave the Vikings one last gasp with a hoop that made it 40-38 with 1:27 left, but Hampden made 12-of-16 from the free throw line from the time they took the lead, including 7-for-10 in the final minute, to clinch it.