BANGOR, Maine — Medomak Valley prefers playing a hard-pressing, uptempo style. On Wednesday night, the Panthers encountered an opponent that wanted the same thing.
Despite their similar approaches, Medomak Valley had something Mount Desert Island is developing — tournament experience.
Senior Micah Williamson and junior Nicholas DePatsy combined to score 38 points and went 22-for-25 from the foul line to help the top-seeded Panthers earn a 59-47 Eastern Maine Class B basketball semifinal victory over the 12th-seeded Trojans at the Cross Insurance Center.
“We’ve never really been a half-court set team. We’re at our best when we’re running the floor and outrunning our opponent and wearing them down,” said Williamson, who made 14 of 15 free throws, going 8-for-8 in the fourth quarter, en route to the Darling’s/BDN Most Valuable Player honor.
Coach Nick DePatsy’s Medomak Valley team (18-2) will battle Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference rival and No. 2 seed Winslow in Saturday’s 3:35 p.m. regional championship game in Bangor.
“We’re doing some good things. We’ve got to work out our box-outs and rebounding and transition defense,” DePatsy said. “We’ve got different kids stepping up, and that’s been a part of our success all season.”
Nicholas DePatsy tossed in 18 points, going 8-for-10 from the line, and he grabbed five rebounds. Cameron Allaire contributed eight points and six rebounds.
Upstart MDI, which finished at 7-14, showed no quit. However, coach Justin Norwood’s squad succumbed to its turnover woes and frequent fouls.
Riley Swanson hit four 3-pointers on his way to a team-high 17 points for MDI, which received 10 points from Russell Kropff. Graham Good pulled down nine rebounds.
“[MDI is] good and I think they’re going to get even better next year, and I think it kind of shell-shocked us a little bit at the beginning, and we kind of regrouped a little bit and started playing our game instead of theirs,” Williamson said.
MDI manufactured an 11-2 run during the third quarter, but Medomak Valley had an answer.
Zach Starr’s runner and an Allaire foul shot gave the Panthers a 40-35 lead after three. Then Allaire hit a 17-footer, and DePatsy converted two free throws to make it 44-35 with 7:11 left.
The Trojans didn’t get closer than six after that.
“Early on there, they were splitting us, they were getting to the rim,” coach Nick DePatsy said of the Trojans. “They were getting some easy looks, and I was a little bit worried there for a little while, but then we did a better job of taking some charges and rebounding better.”
Medomak Valley was in the double bonus early and went 15-for-18 from the foul line in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.