AUGUSTA — Brunswick boys basketball coach Todd Hanson made a prediction after his team’s Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal game against Mt. Blue.
“If they can maintain that level of play, they’re going to be a tough out in this tournament,” Hanson said. “I think they’re hitting on all cylinders right now.”
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Mt. Blue dominated the game from start to finish, particularly in the paint, where the tandem of Cam Sennick and Nick Hilton combined for 49 points and 18 rebounds. The result was a 72-47 Mt. Blue win.
“It was just one of those nights where everything worked kind of good. I just hope we have some of those games left,” Mt. Blue coach Jim Bessey said.
The third-seeded Cougars (15-4) have won 10 of their last 11 games, and will face No. 7 Edward Little (12-7) at 7 p.m. Wednesday. No. 6 Brunswick ends the season 11-8.
Mt. Blue opened the game with an 11-0 run and, from the start, focused on getting the ball inside to Sennick (29 points, nine rebounds) and Hilton (20 points, nine boards).
“We ran some sets early to get us going. We had a plan to run some entries to try and get an early lead because we were concerned with them maybe holding (the ball),” Bessey said.
Brunswick beat Mt. Blue 59-56 in the regular season, and trailed 12-0 to start that game. Hanson called a pair of timeouts in the first four and a half minutes to try and settle his team down.
“At the first timeout I said, the good news is we’re only down 7-0. We’ve been here before,” Hanson said. “After the second time out it was more let’s figure this thing out or it could get away from us. Unfortunately, it kind of got away in the second quarter.”
The Dragons never found a way to slow either Sennick or Hilton, who combined to outscore Brunswick themselves.
“Me and Nick knew that one of us was going to be covered, and the other was going to be open. There’s no way they could’ve stopped both of us,” Sennick said.
Added Hanson: “Cam Sennick was a man among boys in the paint. We just had no answer for him. And when we did double him, Hilton came over and cleaned up the mess.”
Mt. Blue led 36-16 at the half, and 51-33 after three quarters.
Defensively, Eric Berry, who missed the regular-season game at Brunswick with an ankle injury, did an excellent job containing Brunswick’s top scorer, Mitch Black. The Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference South Division Player of the Year, Black finished with 14 points, and never got into an offensive rhythm.
“The big thing was stopping the ball and not letting Mitch Black get open to shoot. If he gets hot, he can keep hitting them. Eric did a great job,” Hilton said.
Added Bessey: “(Berry) controlled the whole game. He did an admirable job on Black. He worked his tail off on the defensive end. If I was going to give a player of the game, I might give it to him.”
Blake Hart added 10 points and seven rebounds for Mt. Blue. Konnor Scarponi scored 12 points for Brunswick.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
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