BANGOR, Maine — When the Stearns boys basketball team gets out to a slow start, the Minutemen usually have trouble regaining momentum.
When they have quick starts, however, the end result has been similar to what happened in Wednesday morning’s Eastern Maine Class C quarterfinal against Orono.
The No. 5 Minutemen jumped out to a quick lead and held off a third-quarter charge en route to a 79-61 victory over the No. 4 Red Riots.
Stearns, now 17-2 will face No. 1 Washington Academy of East Machias Friday night at 8:35. The top-ranked Raiders of East Machias defeated No. 8 Narraguagus of Harrington 79-55 in the morning’s second quarterfinal.
In the first game, Garen Manzo poured in a game-high 27 points for Stearns, which had six different players score during a first quarter in which the Minutemen took a 20-11 lead.
“As long as we come out with intensity we have good starts,” Manzo said. “If we come out flat, it’s hard to get it back.”
Orono clawed its way back into the game, cutting the lead to five points at halftime and got it down to 34-32 early in the third. But Stearns got offensive-rebound putbacks from Cory Barnett (12 points, 6 rebounds) and Zach Sadlon (15 points) along with a Josh MacDonald fast-break basket to push the lead to eight points.
“The kids fought at the end and I’m proud of that,” Orono coach Ben Goodwin said. “Stearns got after it early. We kind of sat back, got into a hole and couldn’t dig ourselves out.”
Manzo scored nine points in the third, and then went 10-for-12 from the free-throw line in the fourth.
Stearns kept turnovers to a minimum with seven compared to 16 for Orono, and were able to look to forward Barnett and center Tyler Richards (12 points, 8 rebounds).
“Before the game we talked about how we had to get the ball inside. That’s how we work, from the inside-out,” Barnett said.
Joel Reimersma led the Red Riots with 20 points, 10 of which came in the second quarter. Brandon LeVasseur put in 15.
In the second game, the Raiders showed that what they lacked in tournament experience they made up for with talent, defensive intensity and an explosive offense.
The Raiders used those assets and then some, shaking off some early cobwebs before cruising by the Knights.
The Raiders didn’t exactly come out of the gates flying, as Blake Chase canned 3-pointers on Guagus’ first two possessions, and a pullup in the lane from Andrew Polley resulted in a quick 8-0 Knights lead and a fast timeout from Liburd.
“We came out a little bit nervous initially, we haven’t played a basketball game in quite a while,” said Liburd.
WA had endured a 10-day layoff since playing for the PVC championship.
After the Raiders settled down, 6-foot junior guard Noah Von Rotz settled into a groove, pouring in 16 first-half points in helping WA build a 39-25 halftime lead, thanks to a 21-6 burst in the second quarter.
“After a while we got the jitters out and just came out and won. We were very nervous,” said Von Rotz, whose club trailed 19-18 after the first quarter.
The Raiders went on cruise control in the second half, with Narraguagus getting no closer than 11 points.
Von Rotz capped off a spectacular 26-point, 11-for-15 shooting afternoon with a breakaway lefthanded slam.
“Since third grade I’ve wanted to play here. The dunk makes it all the better,” said Von Rotz.
Von Rotz spearheaded a balanced Raider offense, as Milos Gautier contributed 11 points while Bryce Colbeth, Wen Hao Song and Ben Teer contributing eight points apiece.
Chase led Narraguagus with 15 points while Stephen Strout added 11 and Andrew Polley eight.