PORTLAND — After being hampered by foul trouble in the first half, Teigan Pelletier took over in the third quarter and helped first-seeded Oxford Hills pull away in the fourth for a 66-60 victory over fourth-seeded Cheverus in a Class AA North semifinal Friday at Cross Insurance Arena.

Pelletier scored 20 of his game-high 27 points in the second half. He also grabbed 14 rebounds.

“I just tried getting my shots and keep the energy for our offense because we, at one point, didn’t have any energy,” Pelletier said.

The Vikings (19-1) advance to face second-seeded Portland (15-5) in the regional final on Saturday at 3:45 p.m., again at Cross Insurance Arena. Oxford Hills won both meetings with the Bulldogs in the regular season.

“It’s a great experience. The energy here is unmatched,” Pelletier said. “And Portland’s a really good team. That’s definitely not going to be a shootout, they’re a really good defensive team.”

Pelletier said that Vikings entered Friday’s game expecting an up-and-down, run-and-gun shootout due to Cheverus’ offensive talent, led by Silvano Ismail, the Class AA North Player of the Year.

For most of the first two and a half quarters, Oxford Hills was running to catch up with the Stags (14-6), who continued to build six- to 10-point leads that the Vikings eventually erased before falling behind again.

Cheverus scored the first four points of the third quarter to extend their two-point halftime lead to 39-33. But then Pelletier and Holden Shaw led Oxford Hills on a 18-2 run that put them ahead 51-41 before Silvano scored the final basket of the period.

Pelletier scored 12, including three 3-pointers, in the third and Shaw added six.

“We made a concentrated effort to get him the basketball,” Vikings coach Scott Graffam said of Pelletier. “And our guys know where our bread is buttered. He and Holden have to touch the ball … and get the ball down inside. And Teigan hit some 3s, which really helped.”

As Oxford Hills did earlier in the game, Cheverus battled back and tied the game at 58-58 with less than two minutes remaining.

Right before the Stags evened the score, they lost Ishmail, who fouled out with 2:03 remaining in the game. Cheverus coach Richie Ashley said losing Silvano was the difference in the game.

“Their two best players were able to stay on the floor, and our best player wasn’t,” Ashley said.

Cheverus’ Leo McNabb tied the game nine seconds later with a three-point play.

Eli Soehren drove the lane and scored to break the tie. Pelletier hit four free throws and then punctuated the victory with a dunk.

Shaw finished with 17 points.

“That was our game plan going in,” Pelletier said, “pound it in to him, because they have nobody that can guard him. He’s too big and too good.”

Soehren scored 13. He scored 11 of those points, including three 3-pointers, in the first half to help Oxford Hills keep up with the Stags while Pelletier was on the bench due to his foul trouble.

Ishmail scored 24 points for Cheverus, and Giovanni St. Onge scored 15 points.

“There’s no way to stop Silvano.” Graffam said.

As Oxford Hills celebrated its victory, a scuffle broke out between members of each team. Following Pelletier’s dunk in the final seconds, St. Onge threw the ball at Pelletier and walked toward a group of Vikings players and coaches. Oxford Hills’ Jake Carson ran from near midcourt and pushed St. Onge to the ground. Carson, St. Onge and Cheverus assistant coach Adam Peters were ejected. Carson will miss Saturday’s regional final.

« Previous

Next »

Related Stories