AUGUSTA — Maranacook was one of the few lower seeds no team wanted to see and the Black Bears showed why Monday night at the Augusta Civic Center.

The eighth-seeded Black Bears trailed for all but 3 minutes against No. 1 Boothbay, but found themselves in front when it mattered to pull off a 57-54 upset of the Seahawks in the Western Class C boys basketball quarterfinals.

Boothbay’s Julian Aponte got off a clean look on a step-back, potential game-tying 3-pointer from the top of the key as time expired, but it hit the front of the rim and bounced out.

“He’s a good shooter and I thought he was going to nail that shot,” Maranacook’s lone senior, Cam Brochu, said. “I guess it just didn’t happen and we got really lucky at the end there.

“It’s exciting. I knew we were going to come in not very highly seeded, but we’re hard workers, and I knew we would end up with a win as soon as we got here.”

Brochu scored eight of his game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter, while Levi Emery had six points and 18 rebounds. Sophomore Kyle Wilbur provided a spark off the bench with 14 points. Maranacook will now play No. 4 Winthrop in the regional semifinals Thursday at 8:30 p.m.

“Cam is our emotional, physical and performance leader,” Maranacook coach Rob Schmidt said. “He brings everything to this team that we want every player to be like. Without him we’re not here. He’s a tremendous leader and that’s what he does; he steps up when he needs to. It was a great effort.”

Boothbay had two separate instances when it had an opportunity to put the Black Bears away but could not, building a 10-point lead midway through the second quarter and 12-point advantage with less than 3 minutes remaining in the third.

Each time Maranacook had the answer though. The Black Bears closed the third quarter on a 10-0 run — highlighted by six points from Wilbur — to cut the deficit to just 45-43 heading to the fourth.

“Boothbay was really worried about him,” Schmidt said of Wilbur. “They saw him hit six threes in the prelim game and they knew where he was every time on the court. He stretched their defense out and he hit some huge shots.

“More importantly I think they were really focused on him and we were able to get some other guys involved at crucial times.”

Wilbur later tied the game with 3:44 to play in the fourth after knocking down 2-of-3 foul shots, but over the next minute both teams struggled to claim the lead.

Ultimately it was Maranacook’s senior captain, Brochu, that stepped up, putting in a layup after a lengthy offensive possession to put the Black Bears up 51-49 with 2:04 remaining. It was their first lead since 4:06 of the first quarter when the Black Bears led 8-7.

“That was huge for us,” Brochu said. “As soon as we get ahead we like to push ahead and keep going with it.”

Over the next minute the two teams traded quick buckets, but a pair of free throws from John Brooks allowed Maranacook to take its largest lead of the game at 55-51 with 49.3 seconds to go.

The contest was far from over though, as Abel Bryer answered with a conventional 3-point play 15 seconds later to cut the deficit to one.

After failing to advance the ball up the court on the ensuing out-of-bounds play, Maranacook burned its final timeout to call a play.

It worked to perfection as John Brooks hit Kent Mohlar on a deep pass up the court to spring him for a layup, leaving the Seahawks one last chance to tie it. Boothbay got a series of opportunities on its final possession – including a rimmed out triple by Evan Hepburn prior to Aponte’s miss – but ultimately could not get the go-ahead bucket.

The Black Bears never gave up despite facing sizeable deficits, and according to their coach that is a result of how their season has played out as a whole.

“We took some punches this season and we lost some close games. I really believe that we learned from it,” Schmidt said. “We’ve continued to practice hard and continued to have the effort. I’ve said from Day 1 we’re very athletic but we’re finally playing smarter. I think we’re playing with a confidence to receive some of those punches and not give up.”

Evan Crawley – 621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @Evan_Crawley

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