BREWER, Maine — The Brewer boys basketball team’s season was at its tipping point early in the fourth quarter of Tuesday night’s Eastern Maine Class A prelim against Mt. Ararat of Topsham.
Not only had the Witches’ eight-point halftime lead vanished, but a six-game losing streak spanning nearly a month entering postseason play suggested that another momentum shift in their favor might not be forthcoming.
Yet Brewer somehow persevered, holding Mt. Ararat scoreless for the next 5 minutes and 46 seconds while cashing in at the free-throw line for the bulk of a 13-0 run that spurred the Witches to a 60-48 victory and their first trip to the regional quarterfinals at the Augusta Civic Center since 2010.
“When it comes down to it,” said Brewer coach Clayton Blood, “without failure, success comes easy and this was really hard, but boy, did these kids step up.”
Junior forward Matt Pushard led the Witches with 26 points and 13 rebounds, including 17 points and eight boards in the first half.
“He was just huge,” said Blood, “and by him being so dominant inside they had to double him, they had to give him help side and that took the pressure off our perimeter.”
Classmate Jamison Rhoads-Doyle came off the bench to add 10 points — seven during the game’s final 4:18 — while yet another junior, Logan Rogerson, scored nine points and keyed the defensive effort against Mt. Ararat star guard Shyheim Ulrickson.
Ulrickson scored a team-high 17 points for the Eagles, but managed just 11 shot attempts over the first three quarters and went scoreless over the final eight minutes against a blend of defenses that included man-to-man, box-and-one and triangle-and-two sets.
“They did a nice job of mixing it up,” said Mt. Ararat coach Steve Cox. “Our kids identified but when it takes one or two possessions to identify, you don’t have that many possessions in a close game like this.
“And then toward the end we didn’t get the bounces that maybe we sometimes get.”
Eighth-seeded Brewer (8-11) advances to face top-ranked Edward Little of Auburn (17-1) in the quarters at 9:30 p.m. Saturday. EL edged Brewer 54-49 on Jan. 23 in their lone regular-season meeting.
Ninth-seeded Mt. Ararat, which defeated Brunswick and Bangor on back-to-back nights late last week to earn the final playoff berth in Eastern A, ends its season at 7-12.
Mt. Ararat steadily chipped away at Brewer’s 32-24 halftime advantage, closing within 39-38 by the end of the third period on a late jumper from the lane by Kevin Carter and Ulrickson’s buzzer-beating left-handed layup.
When Carter then converted a layup off a Mike Crawford assist 50 seconds into the fourth quarter, Mt. Ararat had its first lead since early in the second period.
“In the beginning I don’t think they made many shots, but they started hitting some shots at that point and getting easier looks because our defense was too spread out,” said St. Thomas. “But we got it back together defensively and started to collapse more and were able to shut it down.”
St. Thomas restored Brewer to a 41-40 lead with two free throws with 6:37 remaining, and that was just the beginning — Brewer made 14 of 16 from the line in the final quarter.
Pushard followed with two from the line before perhaps the biggest basket of the night, when St. Thomas dribbled into the lane and spotted Rhoads-Doyle open in the left corner for a 3-pointer that made it 46-40 with 4:28 to play.
“They were all over me and I knew they would come after me because I mainly was handling the ball,” said St. Thomas. “As soon as they came after me I saw him open, and I believe in all my teammates and I knew he could hit the shot so I passed it to him.”
St. Thomas (eight points, six assists) and Rhoads-Doyle added two more free throws apiece to stretch the Brewer lead to 52-40 before Avery Desjardins hit a 3-pointer to end Mt. Ararat’s scoring drought with 1:24 left in the game.
Mt. Ararat got no closer than eight points the rest of the way.
“We’d lost some games, but we knew we had one more in us and that we couldn’t get down on each other,” said Pushard. “We had to stay together as a team and count on each other because we knew we could win this game and get to Augusta.
“It takes character to be able to do that, but we’ve been playing together for so long and we don’t care who scores the points as long as we win the game.”
