BANGOR, Maine — A veteran Ellsworth High School basketball team didn’t let a game-tying half-court 3-pointer by Maine Central Institute’s Tre Grier to end the first quarter hamper its quest.

The second-seeded Eagles outscored MCI 22-2 in the second quarter and never looked back, en route to a 56-28 triumph in their Class B North quarterfinal at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on Saturday morning.

Bruce St. Peter, the 6-foot-5 center, had nine points and five rebounds in the decisive second quarter. Fellow senior Nick Bagley, a 6-foot forward, contributed seven points and six rebounds in the period as the Eagles improved to 15-4.

Ellsworth will meet No. 6 Caribou, 12-8, at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday for the semifinal at the Cross Insurance Center. Ellsworth swept the regular season meetings 51-38 and 46-29.

Tenth seed MCI of Pittsfield concluded an 8-12 season.

“We knew the second quarter would be big,” St. Peter said. “We really tried to step up our defense. We got pressure on their guards and stayed strong down low.”

MCI shot just 1-for-12 from the floor in the second period against Ellsworth’s man-to-man and half-court trap.

“Our half-court trap seemed to bother them a little bit. We started to get some easy hoops, and it started opening things up on the outside,” Ellsworth coach Peter Austin said. “At times we can turn it on defensively.”

“We moved the ball better,” Bagley said. “We pushed it up the floor and made our layups.”

MCI coach Josh Tardy said his Huskies have had “those spells this year, when we stop running our offense and we get fast in the moment, which creates us to rush mentally. We go into modest panic mode, and it creates execution problems.”

Ellsworth scored the last 17 points of the quarter after Grier’s short runner provided MCI with its only points of the quarter.

St. Peter had all of his nine second-quarter points during that stretch.

“He’s a special player,” Tardy said. “He understands the game. He gets to the open spots, he wins those 50-50 balls and he has a knack for the basket. He’s also pretty big and strong.”

St. Peter’s 15 points, 11 rebounds and four assists were game highs. Bagley had 11 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two steals; Alex Braley and Kyle Golding had eight points apiece; and Bryce Harmon chipped in with six points, four assists and two steals.

Junior guard Grier scored 13 points and grabbed five rebounds to pace MCI. Josh Buker had seven points, and Juan Bango Garcia wound up with six points, four rebounds and three blocked shots.