AUGUSTA, Maine — The fact the Hampden Academy boys basketball team may have more offensive weapons than most of its competition has been one key to its success this winter.
But the Broncos’ defense has proven to be the deal-breaker for opposing teams in recent weeks, as evidenced Wednesday night by their 47-37 victory over Bangor in an Eastern Maine Class A semifinal at the Augusta Civic Center.
Coach Russ Bartlett’s club, which had a height advantage at nearly every position on the court, largely relegated Bangor’s offense to the perimeter — which is not the Rams’ preference.
Bangor shot just 30 percent (15 of 50) from the field, and that combined with a big night by the biggest of the Broncos — 6-foot-7 senior center Fred Knight — advanced top-seeded Hampden to a Friday night showdown for the regional title against third-ranked Mt. Blue of Farmington, a 52-49 semifinal winner over Edward Little of Auburn.
“We stressed defense coming into this game,” said Knight. “Defense wins championships, there’s nothing more true than that.”
Bangor, the defending state champion, ends its season with a 14-6 record — with three of the losses coming against Hampden.
They were just much better than we were tonight,” said Bangor coach Roger Reed. “I thought defensively they were very, very good, and I thought they were very patient offensively. They got the ball to people in good spots with good spacing, and I thought Fred was tremendous tonight.”
Knight finished with a game-high 16 points and seven rebounds as well as being a constant defensive presence near the basket along with 6-6 classmate Logan Poirier (five points, six rebounds, four blocks).
“We work on it, we preach it, and I thought by about the 12-game mark our defense came of age,” said Bartlett. “We played it in stretches early in the year, but I think since the Brunswick game (a 38-37 road win on Jan. 13) we’ve really guarded much better and if we can keep Fred and Logan out of foul trouble you don’t get many second-chance opportunities, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Matt Palmer, a 6-4 junior, also played a key defensive role in limiting one of Bangor’s top perimeter threats, 6-foot sophomore guard Xavier Lewis, to one field goal.
“We talked about Xavier being a big X-factor tonight and trying to eliminate him from the game plan so we didn’t help off him, which is a lot of respect to give a sophomore,” said Bartlett. “But I felt like all of our other guys matched up well with them, so if we could make sure he didn’t score double digits I felt like we could win.”
Senior guard Christian McCue complemented Knight’s offensive output with 15 points and sophomore guard Zach Gilpin added eight points for the Broncos, who improved their record to 19-1 with their 12th consecutive victory.
Bangor got off to a quick start, with senior center Ellis Throckmorton hitting three early jumpers as the Rams held a 14-13 lead at the end of the first period.
But with Throckmorton and frontcourt mate Robbie Brookings each going to the bench with two fouls, Bangor couldn’t maintain its own inside presence against the taller Broncos and its offense soon was sent outside to find any open space, and the Rams went 0-for-6 from 3-point range during the second quarter.
Hampden, meanwhile, not only took control of the inside defensively, but also had Knight at his accurate shooting best as he made three jumpers and all four of his free throws in the first half, a 10-point effort that helped stake the Broncos to a 23-20 lead.
The Broncos then extended that margin to 31-22 with four minutes left in the third quarter after Palmer (five assists) fed Poirier for a layup and Knight for a fadeaway baseline jumper.
Bangor answered with a layup by Zach Campbell and an inside basket by Patrick Stewart (11 points, 12 rebounds) to cut the gap to five, but Hampden held a 34-27 lead at the end of the period and then outscored the Rams 8-2 over the first four minutes of the fourth quarter to build a 42-29 cushion.
We were preaching defense Monday and Tuesday and in the locker room before the game tonight,” said McCue. “They’re a great defensive team so our offense might not be as reliable as usual but if we could use defense to win the game, that’s what it’s all about.”
It’s a pleasure to watch the broncos play basketball. They are awesome. Hats off to Hampdens basketball program that makes these kids what they are. They are the best!
Notice the clip on the Sports page (size). If Bangor would of won, it would be on the front page of the paper. BDN has been famous for this over the years especially when teams from the area have beaten Bangor. Good luck Hampden.
Well it is the “Bangor” Daily News.
Signed,
A Hampden Academy Graduate.
Go Broncos!
Why is the offense is Class A so terrible? And, don’t tell me it’s good defense – that’s crap . . . it’s horrible offense!
because they don’t go up and down the floor and put emphasis on offense like Class B-C-D teams. Fans/media don’t like defense. Period.
B-C-D games are often “messy” and “turnover prone” because of the uptempo fast pace style. Class B C D teams are often playing defense with their hands on the knees, not seeing the ball, not playing help-side. It’s easy to score 8O a game when your playing like that.
It’s good Defense – Classes C,D don’t play it.
But they play up-and-down high scoring games that the fans like to watch and the media loves to write about.
I think its a little of both. I agree to tross24. I watch mostly class C now and they dont play defense. Class A still does. I played in class A years ago and it was a hole different ball game then when we would play B and C schools. A lot easier to get a shot off. I also agree with Mainemurf. The offense is terrible. You just dont see the pure shooters. The foul shooting is terrible. Kids just arent putting in the time in off season anymore. Our playgrounds throughout the state from Fort Kent to Portland were full years ago with kids running the courts. Look around this summer. You will hardly see anyone playing. Most of are kids siting in front of the TV playing basketball on play station. Its sad but very true
Go Broncos!!!!
Go Blue!
It’s really sad that coaches think people come to these games to watch players stand there with hands in the air, block the lane and hope the offense misses so they can go down court to score!. . . Putting points on the board is the excitment in sports. 47-37 come on…..I remember when players would put up 18 to 32 points apiece in a game. It was fun and exciting for the players and the fans……..Watch the players, some of them looked bored and NOT having fun!!!!…..Correct me, but the team with the most points wins…Alittle more offense won’t hurt anyone……….
My point exactly!!! Defense is NOT FUN TO WATCH!!!
Both teams ARE trying their hardest to score just as many points as they possibly can, so in order for them to make it into a game with more offense, they’d have to start letting the other team score more points, and both teams would have to do that, pretty silly.
I actually find it pretty boring when almost every time down the court each team scores and prefer a game where you never know if each possession will end in a steal or some other kind of turnover, or a scoring attempt. It’s fun to watch how good defensive teams manage to contain top offensive players and then see how they respond to that. To each their own, but I enjoyed the Hampden/Bangor game very much and thought that both teams played pretty well.
I like seeing the Offense have to WORK for the points and when a team has GOOD defense and forces stops which lead to points, it’s fun to watch.
If you watched the game last night you would have seen both of the defenses played well and Hampden’s played even better. If you look at the scores during the season there all not like that. Do you think hampden has a bad offense?? I would tend to disagree with anyone that says that.
They scored 52 points in the entire game. The Presque Isle girls had 43 points at halftime!