PORTLAND — Survive. Lead. Maintain. Destroy.

Those were the four stages of third-seeded Mountain Valley’s 64-33 dismantling of sixth-seeded Lincoln Academy in Saturday’s Western Class B boys’ basketball quarterfinal at the Portland Expo. If the Falcons continue with that formula, their opponents might find themselves experiencing some other stages, such as denial, bargaining, depression and, ultimately, acceptance.

Cam Kaubris lit up the Eagles for 32 points, Jacob Arsenault chipped in with 19 and no other player scored more than four points, but it was far from a two-man show by the Falcons.

Mountain Valley (19-0) will face second-seeded Falmouth in the semifinals at 9 p.m. Thursday at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

“We kind of came out of the gate a little tighter than I hoped we would,” White said. “But defensively, we wanted to keep it close early and then pull away. We weathered their storm early. I told them there were two things we had to weather — the first five minutes in the first half and the second half.”

Lincoln Academy (11-8) stormed out to an 11-6 lead midway through the first quarter. Kaubris pulled the Falcons through the early the surge single-handedly, scoring 15 first-quarter points, including the jumper that gave the lead for good with 1:17 left in the period and a circus-like hook/bank shot that made it 17-13 after one.

“We’ve been here before and we usually come out shooting cold here. It just turned out that I had the hot hand early,” Kaubris said. “My teammates were great to me. They knew I was hot and they kept giving me the ball. I just kept shooting and making. Then in the second half, I was able to dish it to them to make a few shots. It’s always good to return the favor.”

But Mountain Valley didn’t take control of the game until its big men, Brady Fergola (12 rebounds), Jon Benjamin and Cole Clark (seven boards apiece) asserted themselves on the boards early in the second quarter. A 3-pointer by Arsenault put the lead in double digits for good and was followed by a Benjamin putback resulting from one of his six offensive rebounds. Fast break buckets by Arsenault and Kaubris closed a 15-2 Falcon run.

“We didn’t get defensive rebounds early, and if we don’t get defensive rebounds, we can’t push,” White said. “We need to be able to push to get open looks. We got some of that and it allowed us to settle down.”

“We definitely controlled the boards,” said Arsenault, who contributed six rebounds to the cause. “From then on, we controlled the boards. We weren’t giving them any shots inside. All of their shots were tough shots that they were trying to force. I give props to our big men. They did a really good job.”

Arsenault deserves some of the credit himself. He locked down on Lincoln’s top scorer, Ethan Wajer (11 points), holding him without a field goal in the second half.

“Jake really did a great job on him tonight,” Kaubris said. “I knew I had to help off my man a little bit and play a little bit of help side because we knew he was their leading scorer. But I really didn’t need to do any of that because Jake did such a great job.”

“I couldn’t reach on him because he’s so quick,” Arsenault said. “I just stayed down and moved my feet and it worked out.”

Wajer’s struggles spread to the rest of the Eagles. They missed their first five shots of the second half, then experienced a rash of turnovers to springboard the Falcons to an initial 14-0 game-deciding run. Fergola got it going with a hoop inside, then Kaubris and Arsenault traded hoops as the Falcons opened up a 46-21 lead before Wajer broke Lincoln’s scoreless drought with a pair of free throws nearly five minutes into the quarter.

“The first time through, we didn’t really take the punch very well,” Kaubris said. “The second time through, we actually punched back. We came back much harder, much tougher, for that first five minutes of the third. I think that set the tone for the rest of the game.”

“They played good defense,” Lincoln Academy coach John Gosselin said. “We couldn’t get into sync offensively.”

Ben McClain and Everett Martin added eight points apiece for Lincoln, which shot just 3-for-21 from the floor in the second half, 9-for-45 (20 percent) for the game. Mountain Valley shot 39 percent and also took 21 more shots.

Click here to see more pictures from this game

Cam Kaubris of Mountain Valley High School shoots over Andrew Feltis (11) of Lincoln Academy during the third period in Portland on Saturday.

Jacob Arsenault, left, of Mountain valley High School drives on shoots over Ethan Wajer of Lincoln Academy during the first half in Portland on Saturday.

Mountain Valley’s Cam Kaubris, left, Ryan Laubauskas and Adam Bedard chase down a loose ball during the first half in Portland on Saturday.