BREWER, Maine — The Bangor High School boys basketball team knew it wasn’t going to earn a spot in the Eastern Maine Class A basketball tournament entering Saturday afternoon’s regular season finale against archrival Brewer, which had already locked up the eighth spot for the tourney and will host No. 9 Mt. Ararat of Topsham in a play-in game at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
So the Rams took out their frustrations on the Witches, receiving 17 points apiece from Ethan Dorman and Andrew Hillier and 16 from Justin Smith en route to a convincing 69-47 victory.
Bangor wound up 6-12 and in 10th place in the Heal point standings. The Rams lost seven games by four points or less including four by two points and one by a point.
Brewer will take a 7-11 record and a six-game losing streak into its game against 7-11 Mt. Ararat, which beat the Witches 65-36 in Topsham on Dec. 12.
Dorman also dished out four assists while Hillier grabbed a game-high seven rebounds. Dane Johnson contributed seven points off the bench and Liam Harrigan corralled five rebounds. Trey Kenny had four rebounds.
Brewer was led by Jared St. Thomas’ game-high 18 points. He also had six rebounds and three assists. Logan Rogerson had 11 points and three rebounds and Matt Pushard contributed nine points and six rebounds.
“We knew coming in we didn’t have a chance (to make the tournament) but we’re a close-knit team, we have been all year, and we just wanted to finish strong,” said junior guard Dorman, who also had a game-high four assists along with two rebounds and two steals.
“We came out with a chip on our shoulders and we just went out and played,” added Dorman.
Bangor coach Ed Kohtala said his Rams have had to deal with adversity this season including concussions that sidelined seniors Karl Gurschick and Kenny, whom he considers his best passer and rebounder, respectively, for two weeks.The team also battled sickness.
“I wish we were getting ready to play (in the tournament). We had some great opportunities and some close games that just didn’t happen for us. But in terms of the way we played, I’m very proud of my team,” said Kohtala. “They couldn’t have handled things any better.”
Seniors Hillier and Harrigan said their team had a lot of fight and they wanted to go out on a winning note.
Bangor used a 12-2 run spanning the first and second periods to build a 23-13 lead. Bangor received points from five different players in the run including three-pointers from Gurschick and Smith.
The Rams took a 33-21 lead into the intermission.
Brewer closed to within 33-25 when baskets by St. Thomas and Pushard opened the second half.
But Bangor rattled off a 17-5 flurry bridging the third and fourth quarters to build the lead to 50-32 and Brewer couldn’t get any closer than 14 the rest of the way.
Dorman had eight points in the run including a 3-pointer and a conventional three-point play off his own steal to cap the spurt.
“Bangor has a great group of young players and they played very well,” said Brewer coach Clayton Blood. “They certainly put the ball in the hoop and defended (well).”
“They shot the ball really well and we didn’t,” said Brewer senior St. Thomas.
Bangor shot 48.1 percent from the floor (25-for-52) compared to Brewer’s 30.7 percent (16-for-52). Bangor was also a perfect 8-for-8 from the foul line while Brewer was 11-for-19.
Bangor shot 55 percent behind the three-point arc (11-for-20) while Brewer shot 18.2 percent (4-22).