The fourth-seeded Orono boys basketball team defeated its biggest rival on the biggest stage Friday night, topping No. 3 Old Town 58-44 in the Class B North regional final at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Paced by a 29-point performance from senior point guard Pierce Walston, the reigning state champion Red Riots outscored the Coyotes 19-5 in the fourth quarter, and will play a rematch with No. 1 Oceanside in the Class B state title game Friday, March 1 at 7:45 p.m. at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Prior to Orono’s late outburst, the Red Riots and Coyotes had played the rest of the game within five to six points of one another, with Orono leading 14-10 after one quarter and 22-20 after two. Coming out of halftime, both teams suddenly kicked it into offensive gear, ballooning the score to 39-39 at the end of the third, with momentum in Old Town’s hands.
“It was just a great game, and highly competitive. I have great admiration for the Old Town kids,” Orono head coach Ed Kohtala said afterward. “At the half, I told the guys, ‘Look we’ve gotten great shots, and if we continue to get those, they’ll start to drop.’ I wouldn’t be at all shocked if in the Old Town locker room they were saying similar things — then [in the third quarter] it seemed like for a stretch there Old Town was making every tough shot.”
But in crunch time, Orono’s veteran leadership and championship pedigree shined brightest, as seniors Walston and Ben Francis used two quick steals and six fast break points to build a 50-44 lead halfway through the fourth quarter, later extending it to 54-44 with 2:10 remaining.
Walston finished with 16 points, five assists and two steals in the second half alone, in addition to four second half points from Francis, four from junior Noah Schaff and eight points (two 3-pointers) from sophomore Bergen Soderberg — each of whom played key roles in Orono’s surprising championship run last year.
“It’s easy to forget on nights like tonight, but [two] seasons ago, we were in this game as a young team with sophomores and freshmen, and just got it handed to us by an experienced Ellsworth team,” Kohtala said. “But we grew from that, which allowed us to take that step last year. Hopefully the tough, competitive games we’ve been through this tournament will prepare us for the ultimate challenge, which is the state championship game. Oceanside is tremendously explosive, and will be a handful as they were last year.”
Orono clinched next Friday’s date with Oceanside by winning a monster of a bracket, defeating two extremely talented and fast-paced teams in No. 5 Caribou and No. 1 Ellsworth in the first two rounds, before finally outlasting their rivals Old Town in the regional final.
Walston and his teammates had split the season series with all three opponents, but were primed to beat them all come tournament time.
“It feels amazing. Without this group of guys and the attention they draw, it wouldn’t have been possible,” Walston said. “There were like seven state championship contenders — now it’s just down to two.”
Leading the Coyotes all year were senior point guard Grayson Thibeault (10 points, six assists, two steals on Friday), junior power forward Emmitt Byther (17 points, 12 rebounds) and senior small forward Brendan Mahaney (five points, two defensive takeaways).
Senior Aiden Gomm also contributed two 3-pointers and an assist for the Coyotes on Friday, while freshman Tyler Priest and senior DJ Francis each converted on one 3-pointer apiece. As a team, Old Town sank seven 3-pointers on Friday, and averaged more than six and a half threes per game this year.
Old Town and Orono finished with the same regular season record the past two years, 15-3.
