READFIELD — Another year, another Wilbur’s shooting touch allows the Maranacook boys’ basketball team to fight another day.

Fifty-one weeks ago, Kyle Wilbur watched his older brother, Taylor, hit eight 3-pointers and 34 points in a Class C West tournament game.

This time it was sophomore Kyle’s turn to torch St. Dom’s with six treys and 23 points Wednesday night, boosting the No. 8 Black Bears to a 51-38 preliminary-round win over the No. 9 Saints.

“He can be streaky. He’s a good shooter when he’s on,” Maranacook coach Rob Schmidt said. “They spend a lot of time in the gym. He did shoot well tonight, and we needed it.”

Maranacook (8-11) will face top-seeded Boothbay (16-2) at 8:30 p.m. Monday night in the quarterfinals at Augusta Civic Center.

Kent Mohlar scored 10 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter for Maranacook, which reached the regional title game last winter. Levi Emery added seven points, 14 rebounds and eight blocked shots.

As they did all season, the senior two-headed monster of Mike Bryant and Becket Wagner kept the Saints (10-9) afloat much of the night. Bryant finished with 22 points, seven rebounds, five steals and four assists. Wagner, at a long-armed 6-foot-8 the biggest center the Black Bears have encountered, put up 11 points and 22 rebounds.

“I was really happy with the way we handled the ball and broke their pressure a little bit,” St. Dom’s coach Todd Flaherty said. “We couldn’t make quite enough shots, that’s all.”

Both teams struggled mightily prior to Wilbur’s first-half run of five 3-pointers in a span of 9:13. Neither scored until Wilbur, the Black Bears’ first substitute, broke the stalemate four minutes in. He hit two more in the quarter for a 9-3 lead.

After getting three the old-fashioned way courtesy of Mohlar’s defensive rebound and outlet pass early in the second stanza, Wilbur knocked down 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to make it 24-11 with 2:47 left in the half.

St. Dom’s zone defense gave Maranacook fits and did a splendid job silencing Mohlar and Cam Brochu in the paint, but most of Wilbur’s highlight film unfolded without a hand in his face.

“We had to focus on Brochu to make sure he didn’t kill us on the glass, because he’s very powerful inside,” Flaherty said. “We had to give up something, and that kid can make 3s.”

The Black Bears couldn’t run away, thanks for 2-for-10 showing with six turnovers in the third period. Wagner, helped by Bryant and Sam Rines, allowed Maranacook only one offensive rebound in that stretch.

Maranacook went scoreless for the final 4:38, and the Saints finished with a 6-0 run to get within 33-23.

“(Wagner’s) wing span is what threw us off. We just haven’t seen the ability to block shots like that,” Schmidt said. “We’ve been working on our patience a lot. We’ve been working on pounding it into the paint, but he changes things in there.”

St. Dom’s lurked within eight until Emery found Brochu for a hoop and a foul with 4:45 left. Brochu missed the free throw, but Emery cleaned the glass and put it back for a 40-28 edge.

The Saints shot 14-for-59 (24 percent). The Black Bears were a smidgen better at 16-for-47 (34 percent).

Maranacook won three of its final four KVAC games, including back-to-back victories over Class B tournament teams Spruce Mountain and Gardiner, to establish itself as the sleeper in the field.

“We really tried to find ourselves, and those last two games we played great,” Schmidt said. “We played our best basketball of the year.”

St. Dom’s won eight of nine MVC games in midseason to seal its 10th consecutive tournament berth. Isaac Dean, Luis Allen, Keenan Lynch and Adam Vining played their final game for the Saints along with Wagner and Bryant.

“I think most people in our league would say we overachieved,” Flaherty said. “Very nice group of boys. They played hard all year, and they kept getting better.”

koakes@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link