BANGOR — A game that began like a runaway came down to a last-second shot Saturday for the Class D boys´ basketball championship.
Unfortunately for Richmond, Mike Christie´s 3-point shot with four seconds left missed the mark, and Central Aroostook completed an unbeaten season with a 40-37 win.
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The Panthers (22-0) led by as many as 17 points in the first half and 25-10 at halftime. Their defense forced 16 turnovers in the first two quarters while holding the Bobcats to 4-for-14 shooting.
“I thought we had it in the bag,” Central Aroostook junior Brendan York said. “But we just kind of lost our intensity in the second half.”
It helped that Christie returned to the floor for Richmond in the second half. The senior point guard went to the bench with his third foul with two minutes left in the first quarter. He scored all 12 of his points in the second half, including nine in the third quarter as the Bobcats cut the lead to 35-22.
“We had nothing to lose,” Christie said. “We were going to leave it all out on the court.”
Richmond (16-4) opened the fourth with a 5-0 run, ignited by Wade Tuttle´s steal and layup. The Panthers spread the floor to take some time off the clock, and despite layups by York and Caleb Kelly (14 points), the strategy backfired.
“We tried to slow down the game a little bit and maintain possession,” York said. “But they were really coming out on the screens and they´d intercept the pass up top.”
The Bobcats trailed 39-28 with 3:15 left but went on a 10-1 run to cut the lead to 40-37. Tom Carter, a senior, scored six of his 11 points during the run, capped by a putback.
“I thought Central Aroostook played a pretty physical game,” Carter said. “It’s not really how they call it in Augusta (during the Western Maine regional), but once we adjusted to it we were fine.”
The Bobcats forced their seventh turnover of the fourth quarter to regain possession of the ball with 24 seconds left. The took a timeout with 16 seconds remaining to set up a final shot, but it didn’t go as planned.
“It was a couple of screens set up for me,” Christie said. “But Tom couldn’t get the ball in, so I had to go down and get it in. We ended up switching positions, me and Tom, and the other guys didn’t really know what was going on.”
The state title was the sixth in as many trips to the state championship game for Central Aroostook. Four of those have come under Coach Tim Brewer, and three have been wins against Richmond, including 2006 and 2008.
“We struggled early on,” Brewer said. “If we had come to play early we would have put them away, but they’re certainly a quality team. In the end they made a run, but we were able to do enough to persevere.”
The battle of the big men – Central Aroostook’s 6-foot-6 Mike McClung and Richmond’s 6-5 Kyle O’Brien – was essentially a push. McClung finished with nine points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots, while O’Brien grabbed 10 rebounds, scored seven points and blocked two shots.
Richmond Coach Phil Houdlette’s halftime speech centered on “not being babies.”
“I told them ‘I’m as frustrated as you are,’ ” said Houdlette, noting an 11-2 free-throw disparity in the first half. “We can go out and play or we can lay down and get beat by 40.”
The state title appearance was the fourth straight for the Bobcats, who haven’t won one since 1986.
“We’re 0-4 right now,” Christie said. “But there’s not many people who get to come to a state championship (game), so I’ll take it.”
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