By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
BANGOR, Maine — The quest for perfection continues for the Easton boys basketball team. No. 2 Easton (20-0) received strong post play from senior center Hunter Turner and the Bears held off pesky Bangor Christian for a 41-37 Eastern Class D quarterfinal victory Saturday night at the Cross Insurance Center. The No. 10 Patriots end their season with a 10-10 record.
Easton will now face No. 3 Hodgdon (17-3) Thursday at 2:05 p.m. in the quarterfinals. Strangely, the two Aroostook County squads did not face each other during the regular season. Hodgdon advanced to the semifinals with a 57-42 victory over No. 11 Fort Fairfield.
Turner led the Bears with 15 points against Bangor Christian, while sophomore Logan Halvorson added 13 in the victory. Cody Collins and Seth Pearson both had 11 points to pace the Patriots.
Turner hit several big shots during the game, but none were as big as his final shot. Leading 39-37 with 10.6 seconds to play, Turner alertly grabbed the rebound on a missed free throw from teammate Nick Clark and made a strong move to the hoop, converting the basket, making it a two-possession game to seal the win.
“We knew Bangor Christian was a very strong, athletic team that was going to make us work hard tonight,” Easton coach Dillon Kingsbury said. “That was the thing that worried me the most, because I knew they (Bangor Christian) would just never quit.”
Throughout the game, every time Easton managed to build a slight six- or eight-point lead, Bangor Christian would go on a scoring streak of its own to make it a close affair. Case in point — the final 2:30 of the fourth quarter.
Leading 39-31 with 2:25 to play, Easton saw its eight-point lead dwindle to just two (39-37) with 50.6 second to play after Bangor Christian’s Collins drained his second 3-pointer of the night.
After a missed free throw by the Bears, Collins again lined himself up for a shot from behind the arc, only this time the ball fell way short of its target. Easton managed to contain the rebound, but turned the ball over with 24.2 seconds to go.
Collins again tried his hot hand at a 3-pointer, but this time his shot clanged off the front of the rim and into the hands of Clark, who was immediately fouled. Clark missed the foul shot, but Turner was there to clean it up, giving Easton the 41-37 victory.
“That rebound was huge,” Kingsbury said. “That is what a senior leader does. He picks your team up.”
BANGOR CHRISTIAN (37)
Collins 4 1-2 11, Cormier 0 1-2 1, Pearson 3 5-6 11, Palmeter, Miller 2 0-0 4, Peary 1 0-0 2, Boutot 3 2-4 8. Totals: 13 9-14 37. 3-pointers — Collins 2.
EASTON (41)
L. Halvorson 5 0-0 13, C. Halvorson 0 0-1 0, Sotomayor, Turner 7 1-4 15, Bartt 2 2-2 6, Flewelling 1 1-3 3, Clark 1 2-3 4. Totals: 16 6-13 41. 3-pointers — L. Halvorson 3.
