BANGOR, Maine — Jackson Mathers scored 26 points as No. 2 Southern Aroostook defeated No. 7 Shead of Eastport 56-39 Monday in Eastern Class D quarterfinal action.
SACS meets No. 3 Fort Fairfield in the semifinals 7:05 p.m. Thursday. Southern Aroostook owns two regular-season victories over Fort Fairfield, a 63-59 home win on Dec. 22 and a 57-36 win at Fort Fairfield on Feb. 6.
Shead jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but a quick timeout by veteran Southern Aroostook coach Bill McAvoy served to change the tenor of the game immediately as the Warriors then scored 14 consecutive points to take control.
“Coach said we weren’t even running plays, and we weren’t playing defense,” said Southern Aroostook sophomore center Nolan Altvater. “He told us what to do and brought us back into the game because we were kind of anxious to get on this court.”
Southern Aroostook (19-1) built its lead to double digits at 17-7 by the end of the first period and maintained a cushion of varying degrees thanks in large part to the perimeter pressure of guards Jackson Mathers and Cameron Landry that led to many of Shead’s 26 turnovers during the contest.
“At first we weren’t ready for the game, but we warmed ourselves up as we got to playing a little bit and were able to stop them from scoring,” said Mathers.
Mathers, a sophomore who was named the Darling’s/BDN player of the game, finished with a game-high 26 points to lead Southern Aroostook to its 13th straight win. Altvater added 17 points and six rebounds, and Landry had 10 points and five assists.
Shead (11-9) hung around for much of the afternoon behind the long-range shooting of senior guard Tony Theriault, who canned four 3-pointers while scoring a team-high 19 points. Theriault scored 14 points in the first half as the Tigers stayed within 29-23.
Shead (11-9) 39
Urquhart 1-5 2-3 4, Sullivan, Eylar 1-2 4-6 6, Harris 0-3 0-0 0, T. Theriault 6-15 3-4 19, Farrell, D. Theriault, Greenlaw 2-9 1-3 5, Moores, Demolet 0-1 0-0 0, Morrison, Altvater, Hood 1-4 1-1 3, Lank, Jarrett 1-3 0-0 2. Totals: 12-42 11-17 39.
SACS (19-1) 56
Au. White 0-1 0-0 0, Morales, Batchelder 0-1 0-0 0, Landry 4-16 2-2 10, Al. White 0-1 0-0 0, Mathers 9-19 5-8 26, Lillis, Altvater 7-12 3-7 17, Robinson, Bivighouse 0-8 0-0 0, MacArthur, Nelson 0-1 3-4 3. Totals: 20-57 13-21 56.
Shead 7 23 29 39
So. Aroostook 17 29 42 56
3-pt. goals: Shead 4-15 (T. Theriault 4-12 Harris 0-2, Urquhart 0-1); So. Aroostook 3-14 (Mathers 3-9, Batchelder 0-1, Bivighouse 0-1, Landry 0-3)
