BANGOR, Maine — Matthew Fleming’s debut with the Bangor High School boys basketball team Friday night was more an unveiling of a three-headed offensive power source as the Rams scored a season-opening 82-47 Class AA victory over Lewiston at Red Barry Gymnasium.
Fleming, the 6-foot-5 junior forward who earned BDN All-Maine honors last winter at Oxford Hills of South Paris before transferring to Bangor over the summer, displayed his considerable skills with a game-high 25 points to go with nine rebounds and five assists.
But his presence also created new opportunities for two returning Rams, junior guard Damien Vance and sophomore wing Henry Westrich, and both took great advantage.
Westrich scored 24 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the field and Vance added 23 points and eight assists as Bangor erupted for a 33-point first quarter and never looked back.
“It was really exciting,” said Fleming, the brother of University of Maine sophomore forward Andrew Fleming. “Everyone on the team had mentioned before that the crowd wasn’t always that good, so it surprised me a little to see that many people in the crowd and how much excitement there was.
“That gave us some adrenaline and intensity and we were able to run the ball more.”
Fleming made three 3-pointers en route to a 15-point first quarter individually but it was one of his two-pointers in the early going — a slam dunk off a steal — that ignited the rest of his new mates.
“We started out strong, and then once Matt got that dunk we fed off that and picked up the intensity,” said Vance.
Westrich followed Fleming’s dunk with a steal and layup of his own to cap off a 19-3 blitz that gave Bangor a 33-11 lead with still more than a minute left in the opening quarter.
Lewiston battled back, scoring the final four points of the first period and drawing within 14 twice late in the first half, the last time at 46-32 on a floater from the lane by promising junior guard Ali Omar.
But Westrich took a feed from Vance and closed out the half with a 3-pointer to give Bangor a 49-32 lead, and the Rams then limited Lewiston to 15 points after intermission.
The Rams’ defense limited Lewiston to 32 percent (20 of 62) shooting from the field for the game, and the Blue Devils never shot a free throw.
“I was a little disappointed defensively early on and then we got a little complacent in the second quarter and let them have a little breath,” said Bangor coach Carl Parker. “But in the second half we came out and played better defensively and were still able to get out and run.”
Fleming finished the night 10 of 21 from the field and 5 of 10 from beyond the 3-point arc with range that extended Lewiston’s defense, helping the Rams convert 55 percent (32 of 58) of their field-goal tries for the game.
“I’ve seen him play since middle school and I haven’t seen him have a bad game,” said Lewiston coach Tim Farrar of Fleming. “Someday maybe I’ll get to coach against him when he has a bad game but I haven’t figured out how to do it yet.”
Westrich was the beneficiary of several long outlet passes from Fleming en route to his efficient night from the field, while Vance used his transition play and mid-range game to generate a 7-of-9 effort from the field and a 7-of-8 performance from the line to go with his game-leading assist total.
“We felt like the two-man game we could handle, but the third part of that you can’t simulate in practice,” said Farrar. “We were talking about that at halftime and how that’s a 300-level course but we’re at the introductory level right now.
“If you can shoot like that and space you out, you’re going to give a lot of teams a hard time.”
