BANGOR — The thing about missed jump shots is that they usually look bad only in hindsight. Gardiner had good, experienced players taking the shots, and Ellsworth was giving the Tigers those shots.
But in the fourth quarter, they just didn’t go down. Gardiner scored only one point in the final 6 minutes, 39 seconds, and Ellsworth came back for a 43-36 victory in an Eastern Class B boys’ basketball semifinal Wednesday night at the Bangor Auditorium.
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No. 2 Ellsworth (20-0) advances to Saturday’s regional final. Gardiner, the sixth seed, finished 14-6 after going 5-13 last winter.
The game was close most of the way, but Gardiner surged ahead in the third quarter and early in the fourth. Aaron Toman worked inside for eight points and seven rebounds in the third quarter, and when Spencer Allen and Jake Palmer (12 points) opened the fourth quarter with long jumpers off passes from Mike Trahan, Gardiner held a 35-30 lead.
But Toman didn’t take another shot the rest of the way, and Gardiner didn’t make another field goal. The only point for the Tigers came with 1:24 left, when Trahan made 1 of 2 free throws.
“We weren’t committed enough to get (Aaron) the basketball,” Gardiner Coach Jason Cassidy said. “A couple games where we’ve lost this year, we’ve had those droughts. I think we fell in love with the jump shot a little bit, and we needed to get the ball inside. Then we did get the ball inside, and we forced it a couple times. Blood pumping, we forced a few shots, that’s all.”
“We didn’t want to have any dribble penetration,” Ellsworth Coach Peter Austin said. “We wanted them to shoot from the outside. It worked for this game.”
The Eagles certainly weren’t lighting it up offensively, either, as they made just one field goal in the fourth quarter and shot 29 percent on the night.
Ellsworth compensated at the free-throw line, making 11 of 15 in the fourth quarter. Andrew Austin (17 points) broke a 35-35 tie by making two free throws with 1:45 to play, and Nick Holt made two free throws 39 seconds later for a four-point lead.
Until the final minute, neither team had a lead of more than five points. The score was tied at 18 at the half, and even though Cote Card put the Ellsworth fans in a frenzy with a steal and one-handed dunk, Gardiner led 31-29 after three quarters.
While the Tigers faded down the stretch, they had still come a long way since last winter.
“These kids just worked, worked, worked, and we went from a 5-13 season to this – that close to playing in an Eastern Maine final,” Cassidy said. “So I’m very proud of our kids. They wanted to get noticed. The underclassmen will keep working, and we’ll miss the heck out of the seniors.”
Matt DiFilippo – 861-9243
mdifilippo@centralmaine.com
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