AUGUSTA — One unbelievable run deserved one in reply during Saturday’s Class A East boys’ basketball championship.
As a consequence, an unprecedented championship streak continues, and an unforgettable tournament push came to a frustrating but courageous end.
No. 2 Hampden Academy rallied from a 13-point deficit in the third quarter and overcame Lewiston High School, 65-57, at Augusta Civic Center, becoming the first team in history to win four consecutive Eastern A titles.
“They’re a very good team, especially when they get out in transition,” Hampden junior point guard Nick Gilpin said. “But we realized if we got a couple of points back, got some stops and worked at it, that we had plenty of time.”
Gilpin notched 23 points, eight rebounds and seven assists and took home the Al Halliday Award as outstanding player/sportsman of the tournament.
Brendan McIntyre added 17 points, Conar Moore chipped in 10, and Jake Black hit consecutive 3-pointers to end a 21-0 Blue Devils surge and start a 15-0 Broncos’ backlash.
“Jake’s two 3s changed momentum,” Hampden coach Russ Bartlett said. “I think we understood that we needed to make a move right now.”
Basketball is aptly characterized as a game of runs, but Saturday’s showdown elevated to that exorbitant, unseen levels, at least in a game with a trophy awaiting the winner.
On top of the dueling runs, Hampden strung together eight more to put it away midway through the fourth.
“When we play EL that usually happens,” Lewiston coach Tim Farrar said. “It’s a situation that happens when you’re playing your rival. These guys, there’s no geographic thing, but they’re the team everybody wants to beat, and we’re trying to be that team, too.”
Hampden (19-2) will face the Falmouth-Portland winner here next Saturday for the state title.
Isaiah Harris had 19 points and nine rebounds for Lewiston (13-8), which was playing in the school’s first regional title game in 24 years. Trever Irish added 12 points and 12 boards. Tykeem Gaines also scored 12.
McIntyre scored nine to give Hampden a 24-19 lead at the end of a breakneck first quarter. The margin grew to 35-27 with 2:29 remaining in the half.
Lead or not, that pace was playing straight into Lewiston’s hands.
“As everyone says, we’re the team of athletes, so if you want to play that way we’ll play that way,” Harris said.
Lewiston scored the final seven to get within one going into the locker room.
Ryan Bell knocked down a 3-pointer. Irish collected a second-chance basket, and Harris cashed in a drive to the hoop.
That was the beginning of a highlight film that seemed to have the Devils on the brink of a title. Hampden went 6:30 without a field goal between the end of the second period and beginning of the third.
“In the regular season (the exchange of runs) might happen here and there, but not in a game of that magnitude,” Bartlett said. “I was concerned, obviously. We were reeling. We were settling for shots and weren’t making any, and they couldn’t miss.”
Gaines garnered seven unanswered points, all off Lewiston steals, to give the Devils a 43-35 cushion. Bell added a 3-point play before Harris capped the sequence with an 18-footer.
Black’s 3s rescued Hampden, which nudged within a bucket by the end of the third.
“I thought we played so well, and I looked up and it was only three minutes into the quarter. You know they’re going to make a run,” Farrar said. “We held them off for a while. It was a great game. They locked down on us, and we started turning the ball over in the half-court.”
Lewiston held Gilpin to a single free throw in the third period by employing a new defensive look, playing a 2-3 zone when Gilpin brought the ball up court, then jumping into man-to-man after he dished to prevent him from seeing the ball again.
Gaines and Bell each parlayed that confusion into two thefts, all leading directly to points.
“We turned over the ball too much, and obviously they’re very quick,” Bartlett said. “Run-out opportunities are hard to guard, 3-on-2, 4-on-3, and we had to avoid those. We had to start making shots to load our defense and play 5-on-5.”
Gilpin added that the change in defense urther accelerated a troubling tempo that Hampden needed to control.
“We knew they were going to want to get out and run on us, and in the beginning we kind of let that happen,” he said. “That pace favored them, but down the stretch we slowed it down to what favored us.”
McIntyre scored the final four points of the third period. Lewiston, only a 59 percent free-throw shooting team during the season, extended the cold snap by missing a pair.
Consecutive baskets by Moore put Hampden in front, 50-48, with 5:57 to play.
Harris promptly tied it with a baseline drive, and Quintarian Brown drained a step-back jumper to restore Lewiston’s lead.
“A lot of teams face them and feel like they have to play perfect, and maybe you do, but I feel like we showed a lot of heart in that (first) comeback,” Farrar said. “That set the tone for the rest of the game.”
Gilpin’s drive for a 3-point play gave the Broncos the lead for good with 4:38 left, starting another 8-0 run.
McIntyre dropped in a reverse layup via Nick Chasse, and after Moore missed 3-of-4 from the line, Gilpin continued what was a personal stretch of 9-for-10 at the stripe in the final 11 minutes.
“I do whatever I think it takes to win, really,” Gilpin said. “I thought we weren’t getting enough points, so I was looking to score.”
Harris’s 3-point play reduced Lewiston’s deficit to 58-55 with just under two minutes to play, but a steal and coast-to-coast drive by Gilpin sealed it.
“That was a heavyweight bout, like the Thrilla in Manila,” Farrar said. “It was a slugfest.”
koakes@sunjournal.com
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