By Larry Mahoney, BDN Staff
The top-seeded Calais High School boys basketball team used an 8-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to build a 12-point lead and the Blue Devils went on to post a 42-27 win over youthful fifth seed Hodgdon in their Class C North semifinal at the Cross Insurance Center on Thursday afternoon.
Calais, 17-3, will take on seventh seed Mount View from Thorndike, 15-6, in Saturday’s 7:45 regional title game.
Hodgdon, which started three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior, used a 12-4 surge over the end of the second quarter and spilling over into the third period to whittle a 12-point deficit into a four-point disadvantage midway through the third period.
Senior guard Jeremy Turner began the flurry with a free throw and a short jumper in the paint before he passed to senior forward Kaden Small for another in-close basket to close out the third period.
Small hit a shot off an Oliver Clark pass to open the fourth quarter and Small capped the run with a free throw to make it 36-24.
The Hawks couldn’t get any closer than 11 the rest of the way as Calais spread the floor on offense.
“That (8-0) run was a big deal,” said Calais coach Dean Preston. “(Hodgdon) battled back to within four. I was pretty proud of the kids and the way they held their composure and executed down the stretch.”
Small and Turner said their defense was an important factor in the win.
The Blue Devils ran an aggressive half-court trap and it forced a lot of turnovers in the second half. They held Hodgdon to a 5-for-23 shooting performance from the floor in the second half.
“Our defense is very active,” said Turner. “We were hoping to force a lot of turnovers. We thought we could make them throw the ball away if we sped them up and it really worked toward our favor.”
“We really locked down on defense. We put a lot of pressure on the ball which made them make mistakes,” said Small.
Preston explained that it was important to force Hodgdon to keep moving the ball and “get them to take some off-balance shots.”
“They’re well-disciplined, well-coached and they have some (good) ballplayers. They should be proud,” said Preston.
“They’ll be very good the next couple of years,” said Turner.
Hodgdon coach Sam Henderson said his team didn’t play with the same “mental edge” that it had when it upset Machias in the quarterfinals.
Calais exhibited scoring balance with six players scoring between six and nine points.
Turner finished with nine points, six rebounds and five steals to lead the Blue Devils. Small and juniors Kaeson Dana and Clark each had seven points and sophomores Frank Miliano and Phil Bassett each scored six.
Small had nine rebounds, Clark had seven and Dana had six.
Bassett had four steals.
Junior forward Brody Little sparked the Hawks with 11 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots. Sophomore guard Daniel Henderson, Sam’s son, produced six points and seven rebounds.
Freshman forward Cyran Ciarleglio had four points, five rebounds and two blocked shots before fouling out. Junior David Tuttle had three points and two steals before he drew his fifth foul and freshman guard Wyatt Oliver also had three points. The Hawks finished with a 17-4 record.
