The top-seeded Brewer Witches (19-1) set a Class A North boys basketball playoff record with 14 3-pointers in a game, routing No. 5 Cony (12-8) in Wednesday night’s A North semifinal 83-36 at the Augusta Civic Center.
The win puts Brewer into the Class A North final with No. 3 Skowhegan (14-6) on Friday night at 9 p.m.
Last year the Witches lost in the A North final to Nokomis.
“I think it’s a great confidence builder,” Brewer coach Ben Goodwin said. “[Camden Hills] did a great job defending us [on Saturday] and we were tight. Tonight we came out having some fun and we played Brewer basketball.”
The 3-point record was broken late in the fourth quarter when Brady Saunders hit a fadeaway 3-pointer from the left wing. Saunders finished with 15 points and three 3-pointers.
A 27-10 lead after the first quarter was the tone setter for the Witches on Friday night and they never quite took their foot off the gas pedal.
Evan Nadeau of Brewer scored 16 of his 19 points in the first half and drilled five triples on Wednesday night.
“It’s huge for us. He’s our spark plug for us,” Goodwin said of Nadeau. “He plays as hard as anybody else in our league and when he starts flowing like that it brings the whole team up. He stepped up big.”
Brewer’s Brock Flagg, a Maine Mr. Basketball semifinalist, also scored all 16 of his points in the first half and finished the game with 16 rebounds, as well.
“He’s our utility guy,” Goodwin said of Flagg. “He’s a guy that will do what it takes to win. Sixteen points, 16 boards, bunch of assists, he does everything when he plays his game he’s a great piece for us.”
Parker Sergent paced Cony with eight points while both Dom Napolitano and Kam Douin each had six points.
After a close win against Camden Hills on Saturday in the A North quarterfinals, Wednesday’s game was a good bounce back for the top seed in the region.
“It started with us playing solid defense and playing unselfishly and finding the open guy,” Goodwin said. “Once they started knocking down open threes they kept knocking them down.”
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the number of 3-pointers Brewer scored in Wednesday’s game. The Witches netted 14 3-pointers.