BANGOR, Maine — An offense that has struggled throughout the early part of the season finally got untracked after intermission Thursday night as Bangor rallied past Brewer 55-45 in an interclass boys basketball matchup at Red Barry Gymnasium.
Coach Carl Parker’s Bangor club, which managed just 13 points in the first half, scored 42 points after the break thanks in large part to making seven of 12 3-point goals to take the lead and nine of 10 free throws during the game’s final 78 seconds to finish off the victory and improve its record to 2-5.
“Hitting shots obviously helps,” said Parker, whose Class AA Rams had lost to Cheverus of Portland 58-44 on Wednesday night before ending a four-game losing streak.
Sophomore guard Damien Vance, who played for Brewer as a freshman before transferring across the Penobscot, paced Bangor offensively with 19 points, including four 3-pointers and a 5-for-5 effort from the line.
Senior guard George Payne added 13 points, including five points and two assists during a 14-0 Bangor run that began late in the third period with the Witches leading 28-26 and concluded three minutes into the final period with the Rams holding a 40-28 advantage.
“George was immense tonight,” said Parker. “I don’t know that people realize it, but we play him 32 minutes a game, we play him on the best offensive player for the other team typically, and we ask him to score. That’s hard.”
Bangor also got a boost off its bench from sophomore forward Noah Missbrenner, who made three of six from beyond the arc and finished with 11 points, eight after intermission.
Senior guard Michael Bailey scored a team-high 13 points for Class A Brewer, which fell to 3-5 after suffering its fourth straight loss.
The Witches struggled most of the night to create high-percentage shots against the taller Bangor defense, and Brewer finished the game making just 34 percent (17 of 50) of its field-goal tries.
Brewer also struggled from the free-throw line, making just five of 12 attempts compared with 13 of 15 for Bangor.
Yet the Witches used offensive patience and good defense of their own to build a 19-13 halftime lead.
Senior forward Tyler Hafford scored twice and junior swingman Kobe Rogerson followed with a 3-pointer as coach Ben Goodwin’s club scored the game’s first seven points. When Rogerson soon hit a 15-footer and Brandon Glidden converted from 3-point land, the Witches’ lead was 12-2, and Bangor needed a timeout with 3:27 left in the opening period.
Bangor never did get untracked offensively before intermission, but the Rams’ defense was able to slow Brewer’s early momentum.
Brewer’s lead was 15-7 at the end of the first period before Bangor outscored the Witches 6-4 to pull within six by halftime.
Bangor, just three of 12 from beyond the arc during the first half, got untracked from long distance midway through the third quarter.
After Brewer’s Alex Maxsimic scored off a feed from Isaac Cummings to give his team a 28-26 edge with 1:28 left in the period, Bangor went on its decisive run.
Vance penetrated the lane for a three-point play that gave the Rams a 29-28 lead at the end of the quarter, then Vance buried a 3-pointer and Payne muscled in a mid-range jumper from the lane to extend the lead to 34-28 and prompt a Brewer timeout with 6:58 left in the game.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Payne and Missbrenner pushed Bangor’s advantage to 40-28 before Glidden finally answered with a 3-pointer for Brewer with 5:05 left — ending a 4-minute, 23-second scoreless drought for the Witches.
Brewer got no closer than nine the rest of the way.
“In the first half we didn’t play particularly well,” said Parker. “We didn’t make many shots trying to get the ball inside, so we decided to go with a different lineup. We have belief in a lot of our kids, so we went with four guards and a big.
“At the end of the game we had three sophomores, a freshman and a senior out there, which is all right,” he said.
