AUGUSTA — For 25 minutes, it was there.

For over three quarters, the Old Orchard Beach boys basketball team played the game of its season, making layups, stealing passes, fighting for loose balls as if they were the gold ball itself.

One problem fell upon the Seagulls in the final seven minutes of its Western Maine Class C Semifinal game with Dirigo.

The Cougars were the defending Western Class C champs, and showed its playoff experience.

A three-point shot by Dirigo forward Nicholas Crutchfield began a chain of events which insured the Cougars another trip to the Western Class C Final as Dirigo defeated Old Orchard 44-37.

The Gulls finish its season with a 17-3 record.

The game was tightly contested throughout, with both sides showing its strengths.

While Dirigo outrebounded the Gulls, Old Orchard retaliated using its zone defense to intercept many of the Cougars passes.

Dirigo relied mostly on the performance of guard Tyler Chiasson, who scored nine points in the first half, all on three-pointers.

The Gulls used a more collective effort for scoring, as Corey Mahoney and Ryan Gallant each had five points, and John Regis and Dean Perrone each had four points for Old Orchard at the end of the first half.

Both strategies worked, as the Gulls hung tight to a 22-21 lead at halftime.

Gulls head coach John Regan said he was proud of the way his team played.

“I’m proud of the kids,” Regan said. “They gave everything they had tonight out on the floor, they left it out on the floor. I thought we prepared well, and our strategy coming in was to make them shoot over our zone. I don’t know if Dirigo had seen that much throughout the year, so I thought the game was going the way we wanted to. Kept it in the 40’s, thought we had a good chance.”

Regis went on a hot streak in the second half, scoring the remainder of his team-high 12 points.

However, it was too much Dirigo in the fourth. The Cougars shot eight three-pointers, four of which came from the hands of Chiasson, who finished with 16 points. Dirigo took the lead with seven minutes to play and never relinquished it.

“They hit some [three pointers],” Regan said. “That Crutchfield kid hit a big three, he hadn’t hit anything in the first half, so that was big for them. And we couldn’t get a hoop when we needed it at the end.”

Regan said Old Orchard still has much to be proud of this season.

“Right now they’re hurting, naturally, from losing a close game,” Regan said. “I think when they have a week or two to sit back and reflect on what they accomplished this year, they’re 17-3, we won our conference, and came up here and played the defending champions right down to the buzzer. That’s a lot to be proud of.”

Thursday night was the final game for eight Gulls players; Regis, Perrone, Mahoney, Brandon Ouellette, Zach Gordon, James McDermott, Connor Rague and Matt Bourgault.

“That’s tough to say goodbye to them,” Regan said. “You get choked up thinking about it. They meant so much to the program, they were around last year when we went to the playoffs.  They were part of a lot of wins at OOB, and they’re all quality young men.”

— Contact Staff Writer Dave Dyer at 282-1535 ext. 318.