BANGOR, Maine — Mount Desert Island sophomore forward Russell Kropff entered the fourth quarter of Saturday afternoon’s Eastern Maine Class B quarterfinal against Gardiner with two points. He had one basket on six field goal attempts.
But Kropff came alive in the fourth quarter, scoring the Trojans’ final eight points to lead the 12th seed to a 57-53 upset victory over the fourth-seeded Tigers.
Youthful Mount Desert Island, which started four sophomores, is now 7-13 and will play top seed Medomak Valley of Waldoboro, 17-2, in Wednesday’s 8:35 p.m. semifinal.
Gardiner wound up 14-6.
“I felt it was my time to help us win the game. My teammates really helped me out. They passed the ball well to me and I was also able to get the ball off rebounds,” said Kropff, who began his fourth-quarter scoring spree by nailing the last two baskets of a 6-0 run that gave MDI a 53-47 lead with 1:25 left.
Aaron Snurkowski began the run by hitting a six-foot runner from the middle of the lane and, after a Riley Swanson steal, Graham Good fed Kropff for a 12-foot jumper from the left of the lane.
Andrew Phelps then stole the ball for MDI and when he missed an uncontested layup, the hustling Kropff banked in the rebound.
Eli Fish hit a pair of free throws for Gardiner but Kropff rebounded a missed free throw by Good and hit a short jumper to make it 55-49 with 1:03 left.
Senior forward Seth McFarland, who tried valiantly to rally his team with 14 second-half points, scored from inside to cut the lead to 55-51 but Kropff converted a Phelps pass with 25 seconds left to all but sew up the win.
Darling’s/BDN Most Valuable Player Swanson led MDI with 17 points and eight rebounds. Kropff and Snurkowski had 10 points each and Kropff grabbed six rebounds.
McFarland’s game-high 18 points led Gardiner. Eli Fish had 13 points, Brad Weston contributed nine points and six rebounds and Jordan Lamb had seven points and eight rebounds.
“I’m proud of Russell,” said MDI coach Justin Norwood who pointed out that Kropff wouldn’t have been able to recover mentally from a slow start earlier this season.
“This shows how much he has matured. He missed a few shots early that he usually makes but he came back (at the end),” said Norwood.
“We let that one slip away,” said Gardiner coach Jason Cassidy. “We had to step up and play some defense and we didn’t do it. We didn’t get to the free-throw line enough (8 free-throw attempts). Kudos to MDI. They’re a good basketball team. They’re hustling and peaking at the right time.”