On Saturday at the Augusta Civic Center in the Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinals, Berry played, but it was the combined efforts of Sennick and Nick Hilton that did the most damage in Mt. Blue’s 72- 46 victory, ending sixth-seeded Brunswick’s season at 11-8.
The No. 3 Cougars ( 13- 6) face seventh-seeded Edward Little, a 60-52 upset winner over second-seeded Lewiston, on Wednesday in the Eastern A semifinals.
“ They are hitting on all cylinders right now, and Cam Sennick is a man among boys in the paint, and when we doubled him, Nick Bishop cleaned up the mess,” said Brunswick coach Todd Hanson after watching Sennick and Hilton outscore his team 49- 47, led by Sennick’s 29 points. “ We were keeping teams to the low 50s this season, but we didn’t have an answer tonight. It was just a bad matchup.”
Right from the start
Mt. Blue showed its hand out of the gates, going inside to Sennick for four quick points. Hanson called two timeouts to try to stop the Cougars’ momentum, but Mt. Blue kept coming, taking an 11-0 lead before Brunswick senior Mitchell Black connected on a pair of free throws.
Sennick and Hilton both scored six points in the opening eight minutes as the Cougars jumped out to a 15-6 lead.
“ In the last game, they jumped ahead of us early, but we didn’t get down, but today we just fell into too big of a hole and it was not where we wanted to be,” said Black.
Black’s steal and hoop got the Dragons to 17-10 early in the second quarter, but Mt. Blue took firm control with a 13-0 run for a 30-10 lead with 2:28 remaining until halftime. Sennick scored another six points during the run to finish with 14 first-half points, while Hilton made four straight free throws to close his 10-point half as Mt. Blue led 36-16 at the break.
“ We were still confident, knowing that five of our losses this season were by a combined 13 points, so confidence wasn’t an issue,” said Brunswick senior forward Garrett Erb. “But, we just didn’t have it today. They are just a really good team.”
Brunswick picked up the tempo in the third quarter, switching to a fullcourt press and more than doubling its first-half point total with 17 in the frame. But, Mt. Blue didn’t flinch, scoring 15 points of its own for a 51-33 lead after 24 minutes.
“Mt. Blue is just too talented, ending the season with wins at Lawrence and Bangor,” said Hanson. “ They could run the table in this tournament.”
Black drained his second trey of the contest to finish his career with a team-high 14 points, while Konnor Scarponi came off the bench to score 10 of his 12 points in the second half. Ryan Black added nine points. Brunswick shot 33 percent (19 of 56) from the field and made six of nine free throws.
“I told the kids in the locker room that we are proud of their effort, proud of their commitment and proud of them being good teammates, 15 kids playing hard together for each other tonight and every night,” said Hanson. “ This loss wasn’t due to a lack of effort.”
And to seniors Mitch Black, Alex Viola, Trent Anderson, Jibreel Garrett, Erb and James Bandouveres, Hanson had nothing but praise.
“That is the hard part, having to say goodbye to the seniors, and all six of them have been a big part of this program,” said Hanson. “James Bandouveres was a senior who didn’t play and had the best attitude on the team, came to practice every day and played hard. Alex Viola, there was a game earlier this season that I didn’t play him, but he didn’t complain, came to practice and continued to play hard and turned out to be a big part of our success. Jibreel brought the energy every day. All six of them were just good kids to coach.”
Sennick added 12 rebounds and four blocked shots to his totals, while Hilton pulled down nine caroms. Blake Hart had 10 points, six rebounds and three assists, while Steve Yardley and Berry dished out three helpers each.
The Cougars were 30 of 56 (53 percent) from the floor, 11 of 15 at the charity stripe and held a commanding 33-20 edge in rebounds.
Mt. Blue 72,
Brunswick 47
Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinals
At the Augusta Civic Center
Brunswick — 6 10 17 14 — 47
Mt. Blue — 15 21 15 21 — 72
No. 6 Brunswick — Garrett Erb 1-0-2,
Trent Anderson 1-1-3, Brad Smith 1-0-2,
Ryan Black 4-0-9, Mitchell Black 5-2-14,
Alex Viola 0-0-0, Konnor Scarponi 5-2-
12, Jibreel Garrett 0-0-0, Blake Gordon 2-
0-4, James Bandouveres 0-0-0, Elliot
Boyd 0-1-1, Nolan Robbins 0-0-0, John
Almgren 0-0-0, Derek Devereaux 0-0-0.
Totals — 19-6-47.
No. 3 Mt. Blue — Nick Hilton 7-6-20,
Blake Hart 4-1-10, Cam Sennick 14-1-29,
Steve Yardley 2-2-6, Eric Berry 1-1-3,
Chris Malone 1-0-2, Cam Abbott 0-0-0,
Chad Luker 0-0-0, Jaime Brooks 0-0-0,
Nathan Backus 0-0-0, Jordan Whitney 0-
0-0, Kindle Bonsall 0-0-0, Zak Kendall 1-
0-2. Totals — 30-11-72.
3-pointers — (B) R. Black, M. Black 2;
(MB) Hart.
Records — Mt. Blue 13-6, Brunswick 11-
8.
Next — The Cougars take on seventhseeded Edward Little in the Eastern A
semifinals on Wednesday. Brunswick’s
season has been completed.
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