Bears’ slow-down strategy
falls just short against Hodgdon Hawks
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
BANGOR — Facing a team with a lot more height and perhaps some more talent and experience as well, the Easton Bears used a similar strategy against Hodgdon Thursday as it did in their upset win over No. 1 Jonesport-Beals three nights earlier.
It worked for the most part. However, No. 5 Hodgdon (17-4 overall) was able to pick up a 26-24 victory over No. 8 Easton (16-5) in an Eastern Class D semifinal contest at the Bangor Auditorium.
The normally-explosive Hawks were held to just 26 points as Easton slowed down the pace of Thursday night’s game.
Easton coach Dillon Kingsbury was determined to keep the Hawks from getting into any sort of offensive rhythm On numerous occasions, the Bears held onto the ball near the half-court line, trying to entice Hodgdon out of its zone defense.
“We wanted to keep the same overall game plan we had against Jonesport-Beals, but with a few changes,” Kingsbury said. “We had to control tempo, limit Hodgdon’s possessions and get high percentage shots. We did all three of those things but we just didn’t convert on enough of those high percentage shots.”
Senior Josh Hudson led Hodgdon with eight points, six rebounds and two assists.
For Easton, only three players got into the scorebook. Senior Jared Hafford handled the bulk of the scoring duties, tossing in 18 of his team’s 24 points and adding two rebounds. Junior Hunter Turner added four points and six rebounds.
The scoring was so sparse that the two teams combined for just six points in the fourth quarter, all coming in the final 2:30 of action.
More than five minutes ran off the clock in the final period before someone managed to sink a basket. Easton tied the game at 23-23 with 2:40 to play as Hafford hit an eight-foot jumper. Hodgdon quickly countered with a backdoor layup by Nick Lunn with 2:27 to play, making it 25-23 in favor of the Hawks.
“We knew they (Easton) were going to come in and slow the game down,” Hodgdon coach Rob Smith said. “We prepared for that, and actually worked on a game plan of our own for slowing things down, but we’d prefer to get out and run.”
The Bears looked to the same defensive strategy that worked so well in their quarterfinal contest with Jonesport-Beals. Cody Halvorson guarded the Hawks’ best offensive weapon — Josh Hudson — for most of the contest. Halvorson had similar responsibilities against the Royals’ Garet Beal, an All-State candidate, in the previous round.
Clinging to a 25-23 lead with 13.7 seconds to play, Hafford was fouled as he tried to penetrate to the basket. Hafford made the first free throw, but his second was off the mark. Hodgdon’s Chris Hudson came up with the rebound anda time-out was called.
Up 24-24 with 9.8 seconds to play, and with Hodgdon having possession of the ball, Easton had no choice but to foul. The only problem was, because of the slowed down pace, neither team had committed the necessary six fouls to send a player to the line.
Easton committed three fouls, taking several seconds off the clock, before finally sending Chris Hudson to the free throw line with 5.5 seconds remaining. Chris Hudson made his first foul shot, but missed the second, giving Easton the ball with five seconds to play and a chance for a last-second shot.
The Bears looked to their top scorer — Hafford — who had already made five three-pointers in the game, but his shot was off the mark, allowing the Hawks to escape with the win.
“We had a shot to win the game and that’s all a coach can ask for, especially in a tournament game and being the eighth seed,” Kingsbury said.
