BANGOR – Keegan Pieri’s slam dunk with 2 minutes, 26 seconds left was a fitting statement for top-ranked Camden Hills rolled to a 79-44 win over No. 8 Caribou in the quarterfinals of the Eastern Class B boys tournament at the Bangor Auditorium on Saturday

Senior center Tyler McFarland led all scorers with 30 points for Camden Hills while senior guard Joel Gabriele scored 17 points including three 3-pointers.

Caribou was led by Matt Till with 23 points while Stephen St. Peter added 10.

Despite the strong shooting from Camden Hills (19-0), Coach Jeff Hart wanted more from his team.

He was disappointed with the tempo and credited Caribou’s defense with keeping his high-scoring team from pulling away earlier.

“They spread you out. They did a pretty good job and I thought we had a hard time early on,” Hart said. “But they were pretty jacked up for the first game.”

Gabriele set the tone at the start of the game with back-to-back 3-point shots in the first 50 seconds.

Till sank a jumper to make it 6-2 less than a minute into the game, but when McFarland hit his first jumper at 6:20 to make it 8-2, Caribou (13-7) never got any closer.

After the Windjammers jumped out to an 18-8 first-quarter lead, they added 20 points in the second with four McFarland free throws and four field goals from McFarland, including three jumpers from the lane.

At halftime it was 38-18 and the Windjammers never led by less than 18 the rest of the game.

Camden Hills pulled away in the fourth quarter led largely McFarland, who had seven points. And with less than 3 minutes left, Colin Morse and Taylor Hall both came off the bench and added five points apiece.

In all, nine Windjammers scored at least a point.

The Windjammers have won four regional championships in the past six years and went on to win state championships in 2005 and 2009.

A year ago, the team lost to Falmouth in the state championship game.

Now the team advances to the semifinals and will play fifth-ranked Winslow, a 64-58 winner over fifth-ranked Medomak Valley.

Hart said he wants to shore up his defense more and keep the next opponent to fewer points in the tournament.

“I think we need to rebound better,” Hart said. 

Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or at

dfleming@pressherald.com

 

Copy the Story Link