The Bangor-Brewer high school rivalry is more than a century old, and both boys basketball teams did that storied history proud on Tuesday night in a back-and-forth nail-biter.
Though the Bangor Rams jumped out to an early lead, Brewer sophomore star Oli Higgins kept his team in the game by scoring the first nine of the Witches’ points. And a barrage of late three-point shooting, especially from Jack Robertson and Caleb Campbell, helped Brewer storm back for the 49-46 win over neighboring Bangor.
It was a hard-fought game of tough defense and back-and-forth runs, with both squads bringing a high level of intensity to the rivalry matchup. And things got even more intense late when a disagreement emerged over the score of the game.
With Brewer up 43-41 in the fourth quarter, Bangor senior Harry Fitzpatrick was fouled and went down hard, eventually hobbling to the free-throw line. Fitzpatrick made one of two free-throws, but that point from the line seemed to be missed at the scorer’s table and the official score remained 43-41 (that fourth quarter sequence can be confirmed by watching the broadcast from Ticket TV).
Despite protestations from the Bangor bench and fans, along with several confabs between referees, coaches and the scorer’s table, the score was not updated.
In one particularly heated moment, the two head coaches had a less-than-pleasant exchange of words with each other after speaking with a referee. But the game continued, and after the teams traded a few more points, a last-ditch three-pointer from Bangor was just off the mark.
The Brewer home crowd delighted in the win, which didn’t look likely early on after Bangor led 13-4 through one quarter.
“What a wonderful win for the kids. The kids were unbelievable tonight. They didn’t quit,” said Brewer coach Mark Savage. “They just stayed focused when they needed to, and did what they had to do to win.”
Both Savage and Bangor head coach Jay Kemble were asked about their heated moment together during the score confusion.
“What you have to do is get refocused. And I had to walk away and focus on the game,” Savage said. “The game’s the only thing that matters.”
Kemble noted the mistake but credited both teams for how they played.
“It was a mistake in the score, but you’ve got to continue to play through that part of the game — that discrepancy, you can’t let it affect you,” Kemble said. “And I thought our kids did a pretty good job on the floor of letting it go and continuing to play.”
The Bangor coach highlighted the strong defensive effort from both teams, and said the two squads would grow from the game after playing in a competitive environment.
“It’s always a rivalry game,” Kemble said. “It doesn’t matter what the records are of either one of the teams. Bangor and Brewer, they go back playing each other for 100 years.”
Kemble seemed to downplay the disagreement over the score afterward.
“Both coaches went back to coaching their teams and trying to get the best possible possessions for each team,” Kemble said. “It was just a hard, tough, competitive game.”
The back-and-forth action made for an exciting game, Kemble said.
“This rivalry is what athletics is all about in this area,” Savage said. “It is the rivalry, and it’s like this every game. It doesn’t matter how good the teams are, this is the type of fight it’s going to be.”
Fitzpatrick and Nate Grunkemeyer had particularly strong performances for Bangor. Higgins’ presence loomed large for Brewer throughout the game, and his two back-to-back dunks early in the second quarter energized both the home team and home fans in a big way. And his teammates’ shooting, especially from deep by Robertson and Campbell, helped finalize the comeback late.
Robertston closed out the third quarter with a buzzer-beating three so deep he might as well have been over the city line in Bangor. That tied the game at 34 heading into the fourth quarter, and then Campbell quickly hit another long three-pointer to go up 37-34.
Higgins said it felt great to get the rivalry win over Bangor.
“Energy was high all night,” said the towering sophomore. “It feels amazing to get out of here with a win.”
Brewer moved to 2-3 on the season and Bangor is now 3-3.