AUGUSTA, Maine — Senior guard Jordan Roddy scored 23 points as No. 4 Cony of Augusta held off No. 5 Camden Hills of Rockport 61-57 in a frenetic Class A North boys basketball quarterfinal at the Augusta Civic Center on Saturday evening.
The win advances coach T.J. Maines’ club (14-5) to the regional semifinals for the second straight year on Wednesday night when the Rams will face top-ranked Hampden Academy.
Camden Hills, making its first postseason appearance since 2014, ends its season with an 11-8 record.
This quarterfinal went right down to the wire, with Cony managing slight control of the game from late in the first quarter on but unable to put the Windjammers away until the final seconds.
The Rams took a 45-41 lead into the fourth quarter and extended that margin to as many as seven points at 53-46 on two Simon McCormick free throws with 4:29 to play.
Camden Hills rallied with seven straight points to tie the game at 53-53 as Jessie Fraser scored twice on drives before the equalizing deep 3-pointer from the left wing by 6-foot-7 John Curtin with 2:18 left.
It took Cony just 26 seconds to regain the lead, for good as it turned out, as Roddy scored from the lane to give the Rams a two-point edge with 1:52 left.
Noah Heidorn made one of two from the line for Camden Hills to make it a one-point game with 1:38 to go, but Bryan Stratton followed up a missed shot for Cony and teammate Ian Bowers added two free throws to give Cony a 59-54 cushion with 50.6 seconds left.
Camden Hills missed two shots on its next possession, and while McCormick then missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 22.1 seconds to play, the Windjammers were unable to score again until Michael Kremin made a 3-pointer with 5 seconds left to close the gap to 59-57.
Camden Hills then was forced to foul and McCormick made both ends of a bonus with 3.8 seconds remaining to put the game away.
McCormick, a 5-4 sophomore point guard, finished with 16 points on the night while Bowers added 12.
Heidorn led Camden Hills with 16 points, while Jessie Fraser scored 11, Michael McGeady had 10 and Curtin finished with nine points on three 3-point goals.
This game started out in racehorse fashion where both teams offenses were the most prevalent factors.
Bowers, a 6-3 junior forward, scored eight points in the first quarter as Cony managed a 21-20 lead.
The Rams then scored the final five points of the second quarter — three on a buzzer-beating 35-footer by McCormick — to stretch their lead to 33-27 at intermission.
Roddy scored 11 of his team’s 12 third-quarter points as Cony maintained a slight cushion.
