BRUNSWICK

It seems as if when the postseason for any team rolls around, the main ingredient needed is adrenaline. The No. 1 seeded Brunswick High School Unified basketball team hosted No. 4 Bonny Eagle on Thursday in a West semifinals matchup, with the winner moving on to the Regional finals on Tuesday.

Both teams came to play and both teams proved they wanted to win. The game featured every item imaginable that might be involved in a playoff contest — a buzzer-beating lay-up to tie it and send it into overtime; a player wiping the floor clean with an impressive 40- point performance; and lastsecond timeouts with still no clear winner.

However, it was the Dragons (9-0) that captured the 58-55 overtime victory over the Scots (3-4) to move on and face No. 2 Lisbon (7-3), which saw a tight semifinal match of its own against No. 3 Yarmouth, 23-19.

“We barely got out of that one,” Dragon sophomore Jackson Gordon said after the game. “That was the closest one we’ve had yet. It came down to the last few seconds, but everyone worked hard. It’s our first year having a Unified team and this is awesome.”

“That’s exactly what happened, we just got out of that one alive,” Brunswick head coach Chris Baribeau said. “You can’t ask for a better environment. I’m hearing my Brunswick fans cheer every time they (Bonny Eagle) score and that’s what you want. We found lineups that worked, our kids were resilient, they listened to what I was saying and it was fun.”

The Scots went to work early, knotting the game up at four points apiece and capitalizing on seven more points after to jump ahead, 11-4. However, the Dragons took the foot off the brake and returned the favor with an 8-0 run to take a 12-11 edge before ending the first quarter up, 14-13.

One of the biggest stories of the game was Bonny Eagle’s Colbe Lewis, who became a thorn in the sides of the Dragons players, scoring 40 of the Scots’ 55 points. Roy Rea lofted up a deep 3- pointer to get things started for the visitors in the second quarter, but Lewis went on a 12-point roll the rest of the frame, while the Dragons were limited to just nine points to fall behind 28-23 at the half.

Andrew DuRoss and Tim Humphrey combined for eight of the Dragons 14 third-quarter points, while the defense stepped up to limit the Scots to just three field goals to take back the lead, 37-34.

“You see a lot of schools getting easy lay-ups in transition,” Baribeau said. “As long as we have one or two guys back, that’s basketball in general, it doesn’t matter what level it is. If we can teach them to get back and some of the fundamentals of the game we’re going to have a good turn out.”

Late dramatics

At this point it seemed pretty clear that it was going to come down to the wire to determine which team was moving on. Lewis put up six straight points for the Scots to bring his team back out in front, 38-37, but Jenni Hathaway, Gordon and DuRoss answered with a combined 6- 0 run.

The Dragons continued to find difficulty in stopping Lewis inside the paint as his fourth-quarter total added up to 16. With 2:45 left on the clock and the Dragons up by four, John Johnson (Mt. Ararat) took a step beyond the arc and let one fly for a trey, giving Brunswick a 50-43 advantage.

Lewis went back to work, scoring back-to-back buckets to close the gap to just two points, but when the Dragons were unable to convert on a shot with eight seconds left, Lewis snagged the rebound and barreled down the court, putting up a shot at the buzzer and sending it into overtime.

The Dragons dumped in two quick baskets to take a four-point lead, but Bonny Eagle’s Amber Randall dished up a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to one. After another field goal by the Dragons, Lewis answered with 38 seconds remaining to give his team another chance.

Things got a bit nerve-wracking for the Dragons as a missed lay-up gave the Scots back the ball with less than 30 seconds to play, but an in-and-out shot allowed Brunswick to hold on to its lead, with Baribeau calling a crucial timeout with 24 seconds on the clock.

The Dragons held on before Gordon got fouled on the inside with one second remaining, with the sophomore draining both foul shots to give his team the 58-55 advantage and the win.

Brunswick will host Lisbon on Tuesday at 4 p.m.

“I thought they (Lisbon) were the best team that we’ve seen,” Gordon said about facing the Greyhounds. “They got a lot of shooters, so we have to work on closing out and knowing who we’re guarding and really getting the rebound because they have some height.”

“We’re going to have one day of practice coming off a three-day weekend,” Baribeau said. “We’re going to keep it light and fun like we always do. Lisbon is a heck of a team. They have some good, strong players, great coach, they have experience, we’ll see what happens.”