AUGUSTA, Maine — A fast start and dominant finish sparked Hampden Academy to its second Class A boys basketball state championship in three years Saturday night.
Coach Russ Bartlett’s club — outscored by Portland 22-5 in the first quarter of last year’s state final loss — turned the tables in the rematch and pulled away to a 70-50 victory over the Bulldogs at the Augusta Civic Center.
“Last year when we played this team they were the ones that got off to the hot start and kind of pushed us out of the gym,” said Hampden junior forward Brendan McIntyre, who had game-high totals of 22 points and 12 rebounds. “Coming into this game we wanted to do that to them.”
The win was the 14th straight over four years at the ACC for Hampden, which showed its comfort level with the building almost immediately as McIntyre and Jake Black each buried two 3-pointers to propel the Broncos to an 18-11 lead by the end of the first quarter.
There would be no pushing Hampden out of the gym this year.
“I had nightmares about (last year’s game) all week,” said junior point guard Nick Gilpin. “So I was pretty ready to come out and get revenge for my brother (Zach) and the other seniors who couldn’t win this last year.”
And while a similarly rebuilt Portland team hung within six points at halftime, the Bulldogs couldn’t force enough turnovers to mount a threatening comeback.
“When we were mixing up our defenses to try to get a stop, they’d always find our weakest point,” said Portland coach Joe Russo, whose team allowed more than 63 points in a game only once in their previous 21 outings. “We’d always be a half-step behind on their swings of the ball, but that’s good ball movement.
“They either worked on it or they’re just good at it. Probably both.”
When Portland did increase its defensive intensity, the Broncos used that aggression to their advantage with efficient ball movement — as evidenced by a remarkable 21 assists on their 24 made field goals and a 52 percent shooting night from the field.
“Our player movement wasn’t good first half and consequently we didn’t move the ball well,” said Bartlett. “We were settling for some early shots and we made some, which was like fool’s gold because those shots were going to go dry eventually.
“But second half we kind of picked them apart.”
Hampden (20-2) pushed its lead to 46-36 by the end of the third quarter, then finished strongly with a combination of pressure-beating fast breaks and accurate free-throw shooting — the Broncos made 12 of 15 from the line in the final period, 16 of 21 for the game.
Gilpin had 17 points, nine assists and five rebounds for the champs while freshman center Ian McIntyre also came up big with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field. Black finished with nine points and four steals, reserve guard Nick Chasse contributed eight points and five assists and junior forward Conar Moore added four points and seven rebounds.
Senior forward Stephen Alex led 19-3 Portland with 14 points and six rebounds, while Amir Moss scored 12 points.
A Joe Esposito layup gave Portland its only lead at 4-3 less than a minute into the contest. Then Hampden took control as Gilpin hit a pull-up shot, McIntyre buried a 3-pointer from the left corner and Gilpin followed with two free throws to give the Broncos a 10-4 lead.
Black followed with back-to-back 3-pointers as Hampden stretched its lead to 16-6, but Portland maintained contact and drew within 22-18 on a layup by Alex midway through the second period.
The Hampden lead was 27-21 at the break, but the Broncos quickly increased that margin to double digits at the outset of the second half, with Brendan McIntyre scoring off a Gilpin assist and Moore following with a baseline drive to make it 31-21.
Back-to-back three-point plays by Brendan McIntyre and Gilpin stretched the Hampden lead to 52-38 a minute into the final period.
“We just couldn’t get a defensive stop,” said Russo. “We could not stop them.”
