Olson, Irving help Washburn move on

    BANGOR, Maine — It is always difficult to beat a team three times in one season.
But the top-seeded Washburn High School Beavers didn’t waste much time dashing the eighth-seeded Van Buren Crusaders’ upset hopes.
The Beavers rattled off 15 unanswered points to close out the first quarter and build a 21-5 lead and then went on a 13-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to beat the Crusaders 69-33 at the Cross Insurance Center in an Eastern Maine Class D quarterfinal Monday night.
Washburn, 17-2, will now face No. 5 Machias, 18-2, in Thursday’s 8:35 p.m. semifinal.
Van Buren wound up 9-11.
Junior forward Jarrett Olson had a game-high 22 points and he also grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Beavers. Kenny Irving, a senior forward, had 15 points and eight rebounds, all in the first half.
Cameron Bragg contributed seven points and a game-high five assists, Noah Farley had six points, three assists and two steals and Cameron Preston had six points and eight rebounds off the bench.
Van Buren sophomore guard and leading scorer Andre Rossignol had 14 points to top the Crusaders but had to work extremely hard for them as the Beavers did an exceptional job double- and triple-teaming. Rossignol, who picked up his fourth foul just 1:03 into the second half, also had six rebounds and three assists.
Justin Sytulek and Noah Lajoie each had six points, Paul Rioux had 10 rebounds and two steals and Joseph Canwell chipped in with five points and eight rebounds.
“They’re a great team,” said Rossignol. “They can go nine or 10 deep, they can shoot the three and they play in-your-face defense the whole game. You really have to earn [points] against them.”
Irving had a terrific first half, hitting on seven of his eight shots.
“I just got hot. I got into a rhythm,” he said. “The thing about our team is anybody can get hot on any given night.”
He also said double and triple-teaming Rossignol was one of the focal points.
“He’s a great player and is a big assignment for one of us to shut him down alone. But we had to shut him down,” said Irving who added that “we played a very solid game all-around.”
Olson added, “We pushed the ball and that was a key.”
The taller Beavers, who beat Van Buren by 20 and 44 points during the regular season, outrebounded the Crusaders 44-28 and turned some of those rebounds into second-chance points.