CORINTH, Maine — After winning just one game last season, the John Bapst of Bangor boys basketball team has relatively modest goals.
And even after matching that win total with a season-opening 34-30 victory at Central on Saturday night, those goals remain modest.
“We haven’t been in the position for two years where we’ve had to control the possession down the stretch of a game,” said John Bapst coach Rick Sinclair, whose team built an eight-point fourth-quarter lead before holding on after Central cut the margin to two with three minutes remaining.
“We do it in practice, but it’s a lot different when it’s live. If we’re going to win games, we’ve got to be better at that, and that’s what we’re trying to learn. We’re trying to learn how to play, and to get better while we’re doing it.”
Junior forward Lucas Philippon came off the bench to spark the Crusaders with 10 points — eight in the second quarter as John Bapst outscored Central 14-6 to erase an early 8-3 deficit.
“Lucas had a great game,” said Sinclair. “He had 10 points and nine boards. That’s production, and we’re trying to find out right now who’s going to give us production.”
Senior forward Shane Hass also scored 10 points as John Bapst overcame a Central defense that played a box-and- one against Ryan Carr for much of the night and held the senior guard scoreless.
“They really tried to take Ryan out of it,” said Sinclair. “That was definitely their plan and they did a good job of it, but Ryan played within himself and other people stepped up.”
Guard Matt Melanson, one of four freshmen on the Central roster, scored a game-high 13 points. Six came in the fourth quarter, including two free throws and a runner within a 49-second span that rallied the Red Devils within 30-28 with 2:55 left.
But John Bapst guard Matt Storgaard countered with a pull-up jumper 10 seconds later, and Philippon followed with a layup off an assist by Hass to restore the Crusaders to a 34-28 cushion with 1:54 remaining.
Central, playing its first game back as a Class C program after going 4-14 in the second of two seasons in Class B last winter, fielded a roster with just one senior under new head coach Curt Davis.
And while that elder statesman, tri-captain Matt Kelley, contributed six points and a game-high 10 rebounds, the Red Devils’ two other captains, junior guard David Lord and junior center Cole Haskell, were slowed by foul trouble.
The 6-foot-5 Haskell’s absence was particularly problematic, as John Bapst was able to use its collective strength advantage to work the ball inside or control rebounds against the smaller Central lineup.
“We’re just trying to get something started, a little belief that we can win games,” said Sinclair, whose Class B Crusaders are now idle until visiting Hermon next Friday night. “That game wasn’t real pretty to the eye to watch, and we’ve got to get a lot better, there’s no question about that, to compete in our league on the road.
“But at least we have this feeling for the whole week of practice that we got a win and some confidence, and that some kids did some good things out there.”
