BANGOR, Maine — A long bus ride and the subsequent waiting through subvarsity games represents the down time that can leave many a basketball team flat once it’s time to take the stage.
Not so for the Presque Isle Wildcats, who on Monday afternoon emerged from nearly six hours of waiting to play by hitting their first five shots from the field en route to a 62-29 victory over John Bapst at the Bangor Auditorium.
Junior guard Nathan Ackerson led 6-1 Presque Isle with 18 points while senior forward Russ Mortland added 13, including two 3-point goals in the first two minutes of play as the Wildcats opened the game with 12 unanswered points.
“It’s tough,” said Mortland, who with his teammates left the Star City at 10:30 a.m. for the 4:30 p.m. boys varsity opening tip, “but we do that for soccer and we do it for basketball, we always have long bus trips. Basically we just joke around, hang out a lot, and once it comes close to game time we focus, think about what we have to do, and then go through warm-ups really hard.
“Today we broke a good sweat when we warmed up so we were physically ready.”
Mortland certainly was ready, hitting a 3-pointer from the left wing on the Wildcats’ first possession and following an inside basket by junior center Ethan Braley with another 3-pointer from the right wing.
“He’s been shooting the ball poorly and thinking about it too much, but today he just got off to a good start, got some good extension and good rhythm,” said Presque Isle coach Tim Prescott. “With him it’s all footwork and rhythm, and once he gets that he’ll be fine. I think maybe he’s over the hump finally.”
Ackerson followed with a medium-range jumper and Braley added two free throws as Presque Isle pushed its lead to 12-0 with 5:13 left in the first quarter.
John Bapst’s Derek Smith finally answered with a jumper 18 seconds later, but Presque Isle cruised from there, extending its lead to 20-4 at the end of the quarter and 35-8 by intermission.
“Coach [Prescott] has been stressing to us to get out to a good start, to get out on teams defensively and not let them in it,” said Mortland. “When we come out like that, the intensity starts on the defensive end.”
That defense was consistent against John Bapst, as the Wildcats limited the Crusaders to 17 percent (8 of 48) shooting from the field.
John Bapst’s offensive cause was hindered because of an ankle injury to leading scorer Ryan Carr — one of just two players on this year’s team with previous varsity experience — that helped limit him to three points, well off his average of 12.5 points per game.
Ackerson shot 5 of 6 from the field and 8 of 9 from the free-throw line, with all of his points coming in the first three quarters.
“He’s really a much better player than he gives himself credit for,” said Prescott. “He’s really way too cautious for his ability level. He really can just take it right at people, he has the physical ability to do that. He’s beginning to play a lot better.”
