By Pete Warner, Special to The County
Jalen Reed of Bangor Christian and Dylan Burpee of Southern Aroostook are intimately familiar with each other’s basketball skills from their time playing on the same AAU team.
On Wednesday night, the two seniors guarded each other in a Class D North semifinal at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Reed’s defensive efforts against the taller Burpee were instrumental in helping No. 2 Bangor Christian grind out a 40-33 victory over No. 3 Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook.
Coach Charlie Colson’s No. 2 Patriots (17-3) will play No. 1 Schenck in Saturday’s 2:45 p.m. regional title game in Bangor.
“It’s 2003 since Bangor Christian has played for the Eastern Maine championship,” Colson said. “The coach of that team is on my staff, my brother Gary.”
Coach Brett Russell’s Warriors, who claimed the 2023 state title, wound up 13-7.
Colson made a rare move at Tuesday’s practice by specifically asking Reed if he wanted the difficult defensive assignment.
“It was definitely a hard challenge. He’s a great player and I was gassed,” said Reed, who praised his teammates for their defensive efforts. “It wasn’t just me.”
Reed scored 12 of his game-high 16 points in the first half and finished with five rebounds. Burpee netted seven of his 11 points after intermission and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds for the Warriors.
The Patriots’ hard-nosed man-to-man defense was the foundation on which they built a 25-7 first-half advantage. BC rattled off a 12-0 run behind Reed, who accounted for nine of those points.
Burpee finally found some shooting room and hit two long jumpers that got Southern Aroostook within 25-11 at halftime.
The Warriors tightened up their own defense and found some offensive rhythm in the third quarter sparked by their transition game. A 3-pointer by junior Trafton Russell 20 seconds into the period capped an extended 18-3 run that got SACS within 28-25.
“I felt very strongly that we would come back into our shooting if we would just control the boards and play good defense,” Colson said. “Those are the things that in a tough game like tonight are going to get us over the top.”
BC never relinquished its lead. A 3-pointer by senior Conrad Straubel and back-to-back close-range baskets by sophomore post player Jesse Booker gave the Patriots a 36-27 lead with 3:21 left.
Southern Aroostook battled back as Burpee scored twice during a 6-0 burst, but sophomore Elliot Straubel’s 3-pointer restored a six-point lead (39-33) with 1:35 remaining and BC held on.
“We were just trying to take care of it on defense and let our offense follow, just [do] the simple things like boxing out, getting the rebounds and not letting them get easy buckets,” Elliot Straubel said.
Elliot Straubel tallied nine points, Booker contributed seven points and eight rebounds, and freshman Rajon Reed chipped in with five points, three rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Russell posted 11 points and five rebounds for SACS, which received four points, seven rebounds and four steals from junior Ethan Collier. Lincoln Hardy added five points and four rebounds.
