GARDINER — With his team finally able to string a few practices together, Gardiner boys basketball coach Jason Cassidy figured his offense would be a little crisper for Wednesday night’s Eastern B prelim against Mount View at James A. Bragoli Gym.
Cassidy couldn’t have possibly anticipated the onslaught that was to come, though.
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No. 4 Gardiner shot 62 percent through the first three quarters and answered an equally spectacular offensive performance by Mount View’s Nathan Wren in a 77-55 win. The Tigers advance to the quarterfinals where they will face No. 12 Mt. Desert Island, which upset fifth-seeded Ellsworth, 52-45, on Wednesday.
The quarterfinal, Gardiner’s first since it won the region in 2012, is at 1:35 p.m. Saturday at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
“We just wanted to be aggressive,” senior forward Brad Weston said. “We had to come out with intensity and that’s what we did. (Going to Bangor) is the ultimate.”
Seth McFarland led Gardiner (14-5) with 21 points and five assists. Eli Fish added 19, including four 3-pointers, and Weston chipped in with 18 points and seven rebounds.
Wren finished with a game-high 30 points and nine rebounds for the Mustangs (6-13) despite being the focus of Gardiner’s defense.
“He’s a great, great, great athlete,” said Weston, who had the unenviable task of guarding Wren much of the night. “He can shoot the lights out. We were up in his face. It doesn’t matter. He’s a great player.”
McFarland had the hot hand early, scoring 10 points in the first quarter as Gardiner zipped out to a 14-4 lead. Mount View missed its first seven shots from the field and never trailed by less than 11 points after McFarland’s runner in the lane beat the buzzer and made it 19-8.
“The kids were just playing ultimate team basketball and moving the ball around,” Cassidy said. “We started flat the last two games of the season, so I thought we could up our defensive intensity. Just attacking in transition gave us some looks that we wanted to get and the kids felt confident in those shots.”
“We played three games last week with no practice, so to have three straight practices for one opponent… The kids just bought into the game plan tonight and executed perfectly,” he added.
Fish hit a 3-pointer to spark an 11-0 run early in the second quarter that extended the lead to 32-10.
“Eli was a big part of it. He was shooting great. That helped us a lot,” McFarland said. “When he’s aggressive, that opens up things for everyone else.”
Branden Douglas added back-to-back hoops and Alex LaPointe a layup off a steal, then a putback as the Tigers ended the first half shooting 15-for-23 from the floor while building a 39-17 lead.
The torrid shooting continued in the third quarter as Gardiner made its first four shots to go up by as much as 27. Wren tried to get the Mustangs back in it with 13 points in the quarter, but a pair of 3-pointers from Fish and some nice high-low work between Jordan Lamb (six points, seven rebounds, five assists, three blocks) kept the margin at 25 at the end of three.
Mount View kept battling and knocked the deficit down to 17 midway through the fourth quarter but couldn’t make any more of a dent.
Colby Burrow finished with eight points for the Mustangs.
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
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