AUGUSTA — In the buildup to the weekend, Cony and Mt. Blue boys basketball players and coaches both tipped this game as a tight one that would be decided late in the contest.
Instead, it was a full-blown shellacking, one in which a Rams team that was nearly flawless from the opening tip had the Cougars dead and buried long before the final whistle sounded.
Cony dominated every facet of the game Saturday night to breeze to a 72-50 victory in the Class A North quarterfinals. The win was the sixth straight in the regional quarterfinals for the Rams, who will take on either Brewer or Camden Hills in the semifinals at 8:30 p.m., Wednesday.
“That was so much fun,” said Cony’s Parker Sergent, who had a game-high 26 points and added seven rebounds. “It wasn’t just one single person; everybody on our team did their job tonight. When everyone has this much energy and is getting involved, it makes it so awesome.”
Mt. Blue played fifth-ranked Cony (12-7) tight over the first few minutes with Zach Poisson scoring five early points to keep pace with five from Sergent. The Rams then went on a 9-0 run led by hot shooting from Sergent and ultimately took a 19-10 lead into the second quarter.
Although the No. 4 Cougars (12-7) would find somewhat of a rhythm early in the second, they would never pull closer than 24-17. Fueled by two big Brady Hopkins 3-pointers, the Rams then used a 15-2 run to put Mt. Blue in the danger zone and take a 20-point lead to the locker room.
For much of the first half, Mt. Blue was without Evans Sterling, one of the top scorers in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference. With Sterling getting tended to on the bench with an injury, the Rams saw an opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the Cougars before the half.
“Once he went out, we knew we had to ramp up the energy and take advantage of what we had out there,” Sergent said. “He’s a great player; and he can make so many plays. We definitely wanted to take advantage of that, and that’s exactly what we did.”
Cony led 58-32 after three quarters of play after Sergent continued his offensive rampage with eight points in the third. The Rams led by as many as 29 points in the fourth before Mt. Blue reached the 50-point mark late to save face in what was otherwise a defensive masterclass from Cony.
Kam Douin complemented Sergent’s 26 points with 17 of his own while also bringing down 10 rebounds and notching four steals. Hopkins added nine points for Cony, all on 3-pointers. The Rams also neutralized Mt. Blue’s trio of Poisson (11 points), Sterling (eight points, five rebounds) and Chandler Briggs (five points).
“We just had to limit their big three, limit them as much as they can and limit their touches,” said first-year Cony head coach Isaiah Brathwaite. “If they (did) touch it, we just had to put pressure on them or make the other guys beat us.”
Cony and Mt. Blue split a pair of tight games earlier in the season with the Rams winning 71-63 in Farmington in December and the Cougars winning 68-62 in Augusta last month. The Rams never had the lead in that home loss, but in this one, they never trailed after going up 3-2 in the opening minute.
“When you tell us it’s a playoff game, it’s a playoff game, and everyone is coming ready and prepared,” Sergent said. “We had a different energy tonight. We really wanted this win, and everybody came together to help us get it.”
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