Third time the charm for Wildcats
with 57-46 tourney win over Ellsworth Eagles
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
BANGOR — There is a common cliché in sports that states it is more difficult to beat a team three times during a season.
TOP PERFORMER — Presque Isle’s Andrew Kofstad 
led the Wildcats with 20 points, carrying his team to a 57-46 win over Ellsworth Saturday in quarterfinal action at the Bangor Auditorium.
The Ellsworth boys basketball team learned this statement first-hand as the No. 5 Presque Isle boys (14-5 overall) upset No. 4 Ellsworth 57-46 in Eastern Class B quarterfinal action Saturday at the Bangor Auditorium. During the regular season, Ellsworth beat Presque Isle 69-50 at Ellsworth and 52-51 at Presque Isle.
The Wildcats advance to today’s semifinal contest against top-ranked Mount Desert Island (19-0) in a game slated for 3:35 p.m. The Trojans earned a spot in the semifinals by squeaking out a 59-58 victory over No. 8 Camden Hills.
Presque Isle will hope for a repeat occurrence as the Wildcats have already lost twice to MDI — 55-39 at Bar Harbor and 63-58 at Presque Isle.
In Saturday’s game, Wildcat Andrew Kofstad led all players with 20 points. Matt Eager chipped in 17, while Tyler Brooks added eight; Wilder York, six; and Cole Richards, Jonah Stephenson and Logan Good each had two.
For Ellsworth Nick Holt led the way with 11 points, while Steve Mahan added 10; and Josh Bean and Thomas Sawyer had eight each.
“We thought coming into this game that if we could show our heart, desire and the pride that we have by leaving everything on the floor, we were going to be successful,” Wildcat coach Terry Cummings said. “We knew we had to make our free throws and we were going to have to disrupt them a little bit.”
Presque Isle scored the game’s opening points on a nifty post move by Brooks. The two team’s exchanged leads four times in the first quarter alone, with neither squad able to establish more than a three-point advantage.
Cummings said a key point in the game, in his mind, came in the second quarter when Presque Isle switched to a “triangle-and-two” defense that seemed to bother Ellsworth, who had to be more patient offensively.
“Ellsworth doesn’t like to do that (play patiently),” Cummings said. “They want to push the ball up and down the floor.”
During that second quarter, Ellsworth was held to just three points. And while Presque Isle was only able to net nine points of its own, that was enough to build a 22-17 halftime lead and Ellsworth never led again.
Throughout the game, Presque Isle used its height advantage to work the ball down low to Kofstad and Eager. Kofstad, a 6-foot, 3-inch senior forward, also proved adept at draining the 3-pointer as he connected on four treys in the game.
Presque Isle also did an excellent job converting on its free throws, particularly late in the game as Ellsworth desperately fouled to stop the clock on each Wildcat possession. Presque Isle was 18 of 30 (60 percent ) from the foul line, but more importantly the Wildcats made seven of eight foul shots in the final 1:30.
“When we lost to them in Presque Isle, I think we were 8 for 20 from the line in that game,” Cummings said. “We were going to make sure we didn’t do that again.”
PRESQUE ISLE (57)
Richards 1 0-0 2, York 1 3-4 6, Stephenson 0 2-4 2, Good 0 2-2 2, Eager 5 7-10 17, Brooks 3 2-8 8, Kofstad 7 2-2 20, Shields. Totals: 17 18-30 57. 3-pointers — Kofstad 4, York.
ELLSWORTH (46)
Mahan 4 1-1 10, Nightingale 0 2-2 2, Haslam 3 0-0 7, Bean 3 2-3 8, Domagala, Barnard, Maguire, Holt 4 1-2 11, Haas, Sawyer 3 0-0 8, Weeks. Totals: 17 6-8 46. 3-pointers – Sawyer 2, Holt 2, Mahon, Haslam.
Wildcats 13 9 21 14— 57
Eagles 14 3 14 5— 46
