Presque Isle’s Griffin P. Guerrete (center) drives up to the basket past Orono’s Jake Koffman (left), Orono’s Connor Robertson and Orono’s Keenan Collett during their Class B boys basketball quarterfinal game at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor Saturday. (Ashley L. Conti | BDN)
BANGOR, Maine — Showing poise in the paint and a reliance on the team’s veteran leaders, the No. 4 Orono (16-3) outlasted No. 5 Presque Isle, 54-46, Saturday morning in a Class B North quarterfinal.
The Wildcats end their season with a 14-6 record. Orono will play No. 1 Hermon Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 3:35 p.m. in the semifinals.
Orono had beaten Presque Isle 61-50 in their only meeting during the regular season. The Wildcats never led in Saturday’s game.
Nate Desisto, who will play basketball this fall at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, led the Red Riots with 23 points, including three 3-pointers. Jake Koffman added 12 points and Jackson Coutts and Evan Kenefic each had six.
For Presque Isle, Griffin Guerrette led the way with 16 points, while Jason Dumais added 14, Bradley Kinney had nine and Marcus Ouellette chipped in two 3-pointers for six.
“Any time you are in the tournament you have to expect tough games,” Orono coach Jason Coleman said. “Presque Isle made a run and came back to make it close, but I think our experience helped us in the end.”
Orono opened up an early lead, bolting to an 8-1 advantage early in the first quarter and led 13-6 by the end of the period. Presque Isle came to life in the second stanza outscoring Orono 14-10, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Ouellette, to pull within three, 23-20, at halftime.
In the third quarter, Presque Isle made it a tight contest, as Orono never led by more than seven points.
“We were able to make enough foul shots at the end to keep it a two or three possession game,” Coleman said. “We have two basketball players and the rest of the guys this [basketball] is their secondary sport.”
Coutts is going to Rhode Island on a baseball scholarship, Koffman is going to Stanford on a track scholarship and Keenan Collett will play football in college, Coleman said.
Presque Isle coach Terry Cummings said he was proud of the effort the Wildcats put forth against Orono in a game that saw his team get down early.
“The first half, we got down 8-1 at one point, but we managed to answer that pretty well,” he said. “I told the guys at halftime that Orono had given us their best shot and we weathered the storm pretty well. Third quarter I thought we had some momentum, but in the fourth our inexperience showed up.”
Having not played a postseason game in Bangor for a couple of years, coach Cummings said the Wildcats could take a number of positives away from the loss.
“This group is a determined bunch and now they have a taste of what it is like to play here in Bangor,” he said. “They’ll be back next year.”
