BANGOR — If you’ve been here to watch the Mount View boys basketball team already, you’ve seen this before.

A fast-paced offense that pours on the points; fans that drown out every sound in the arena; a game that’s over long before the final buzzer goes off. It happened again Saturday night — and this time, it brought the Mustangs a regional championship.

Mount View claimed its first regional title in 37 years with a 72-38 victory over Calais in the Class C North title game at the Cross Insurance Center. The win capped off a run that saw the seventh-ranked Mustangs outscore the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in the region by a combined 94 points over three games in Bangor.

“To do what we did and to end that 37-year drought, it’s an unbelievable feeling that I’ll cherish for the rest of my life,” said Mount View sophomore Wyatt Bennett. “I’ve been dreaming about this ever since I could walk, basically, and it’s finally come true.”

Calais’ Philip Bassett attempts to handle pressure from Mount View’s Wyatt Evensen (23) in the Class C North boys final Saturday at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Noah Hurd scored a game-high 32 points (20 in the first half) for Mount View, which never trailed in the game. The Mustangs also got 12 points from Wyatt Evensen, nine points and six rebounds from Stuart Knowlton and eight points and six boards from Bennett. Kaeson Dana had 12 points for Calais.

Mount View (16-6) got things going quickly as Bennett made a 3-pointer and a putback to bookend a Hurd layup and put the Mustangs up 7-0. Calais answered with the next two baskets, but eight more points from Hurd keyed a 14-2 run that put Mount View up 20-6 after one.

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“I was nervous at first; I kind of blacked out,” Bennett said. “I think once I got those early baskets, I was (able to settle in quickly). … We all settled in, I think. This team wanted to show its place in Class C North. Going forth, I think we’ve made a statement about who we are.”

Mount View’s run continued into the second quarter as a Hurd 3-pointer and Evensen layup stretched the lead to 19. No. 1 Calais (17-4) would get its offense going behind nine points in the period from Dana, but Hurd, who hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to put the Mustangs up 38-22, paced Mount View with 10 of his own.

As if Mount View even needed a spark, Hurd’s 3 to end the period gave it one. Paced by two more triples from the senior 1,000-point scorer, the Mustangs went on a 13-0 run to begin the second half to take a 29-point lead. Calais never got closer than 26 as the Mustangs closed out their third blowout in as many games in Bangor.

Mount View’s Noah Hurd (1) cheers after sinking a 3-point shot at the buzzer in the second quarter against Calais in the Class C North boys final Saturday at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

“There’s been a couple games in this tournament where he’s knocked down a big shot before the halftime buzzer, and that was huge,” said Mount View head coach Brandon Hurd. “The momentum was a bit stale at that time, and that shot, I thought, really fired us up going into the second half.”

The win was just as dominant, if not even more so, than the ones Mount View earned to get here. After beating Penobscot Valley 57-38 to reach the Cross Center, Mount View beat second-ranked Fort Kent 78-44 in the quarterfinals before taking down No. 3 Fort Fairfield 66-40 in the semis.

Bennett said the game was easier than the last given how prepared and comfortable the Mustangs were after two games on the Cross Center floor, but his coach was less comfortable, especially in the first half. Although Mount View was constantly up by double digits, there were times, Brandon Hurd said, that it didn’t feel that way.

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“This game felt a lot tighter,” Hurd said. “There were times when we looked up, and it was a 16-point game or an 18-point game, but it felt a lot closer. We’re a team that’s built on 32 minutes, so no matter what’s going on, good or bad, we know how important it is to play our game and play it hard the entire game.”

Coach Hurd said he knew Mount View was capable of the kinds of performances it’s delivered in Bangor all season long, but the consistency, he said, wasn’t always there. After a 61-point loss to Oceanside on Feb. 2, though, he and his players all noticed a change in the team’s mentality.

“After that Oceanside loss, it was bad; we were just mad out there,” Noah Hurd said. “We wanted to make a statement coming into the tournament, and we did that.”

For the second straight game, the sound of the public-address system couldn’t be heard over 1,000-plus green-clad Mount View fans roaring with each turnover, rebound, basket and more. That, Noah Hurd said, was even more fuel for the Mustangs.

There’s one more hurdle for them that remains: A state championship date with Class C South champ and No. 2 seed Monmouth Academy (18-3). Monmouth knocked off top-seeded Mt. Abram 46-43 in the Southern Maine championship game moments after Mount View hoisted its championship plaque.

“They’ve got Sammy Calder, and he’s obviously a Mr. Maine Basketball semifinalist and a tremendous player,” Brandon Hurd said. “I certainly would’ve liked to have seen Abram again, but our goal is to beat whoever comes out of C South, and to do that, we have to take care of a very good basketball team.”

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