AUGUSTA — All eyes were on Bo Leary, as they had been the entire game and tournament, and Tim Mains thought he could take advantage.

With Leary holding the ball along the baseline, Mains made a quick cut down the weak side of the lane, hoping his Edward Little teammate would spot him for a layup. But Leary put a little too much zip on the pass and it got there before everything besides Mains’ fingertips. Bangor’s Tristan Thomas was there to collect the deflection, and the Rams had the opening they needed.

Top-seeded Bangor held No. 3 Edward Little scoreless in the final two minutes and two Zach Blodgett hoops inside the final minute capped a 41-38 victory in the Eastern Class A final Tuesday night at the  Augusta Civic Center. The Rams, who avenged semifinal losses to EL the  last two years, will return to Augusta Saturday night to meet defending state champion Cheverus.

“All we talked about every time we came out on the court was ‘remember last year,'” Hartley said.

Mains, who received the Al Halliday Award as the tournament’s outstanding player, put EL ahead, 38-37, on a 16-foot jumper with 2:15 remaining. After Bangor missed a 3-pointer with two minutes to go, the Red Eddies tried to run out the clock in the half court, passing up a possible layup at one juncture.

Bangor had just one foul in the half up to that point and extra incentive to be aggressive on defense. 

“We were really concerned with one foul and 1:41 to go,” Bangor coach Roger Reed said. “During the timeout, I told them we’ve got to foul them a few times. I said, ‘Go for the ball. No intentional foul but go for strips and steals because we don’t want to be down at the end of the game without a one-and-one situation.”

Thomas got the strip Bangor was looking for with 1:21 remaining. Blodgett then scored inside to put the Rams in front for good with 57 seconds remaining.

EL called time, turned the ball over again on the Leary-to-Mains mis-connection, then watched Bangor break its press for a Blodgett layup that made it a three-point game with 14 seconds remaining. Mains’ 3-point try to tie it was short with 3.2 seconds to go and the Rams ran out the clock.

Hartley scored a game-high 13 while Blodgett added 11 for Bangor (20-1). Leary led EL with 11 points and 10 rebounds, but scored just two points in the second half.

“It’s a battle down low. He’s a tough athletic kid,” said Hartley, who covered Leary most of the night. “We had to go at it all game long. He’s been their go-to guy all year, so the plan was to front him in the post and not let him get the ball.”

Mains added eight points, six rebounds and four assists and Brandon Giguere chipped in with eight points and nine rebounds for EL (19-2).

EL coach Mike Adams expressed frustration with the physical nature of the game and the “let them play” approach of the officials. The two teams combined to attempt a dozen free throws for the game.

“We turned the ball over more today (17 times) than we probably had our other two games combined,” he said. “That’s why we lost more than anything else. But Bo went to the line 16 times in one game and went twice today, and a referee said to me, ‘Well, it’s a different game.’ It’s a different game, but we’re the same team. They committed two fouls (in the second half). We go inside that much. You can’t tell me we weren’t getting fouled that much. And (Bangor) at the other end, too.”

“There has to be happy medium,” he said. “There’s a big uproar over certain officials and how much they call (fouls), but you’re doing just as big a disservice to kids if you don’t call anything… I don’t know if we had a fair shot in the second half to really do some things that we want to do.”

Leary had his way in the first quarter, scoring seven of EL’s eight points. Bangor, meanwhile, established Hartley inside but lost 6-foot-6 Patrick Stewart to two quick fouls.

“I think it took us a long time to get used to their length  in the first half,” Adams said. “They’re so long and so big, when they were sagging off and keeping us in front, it was really hard for our guards to get used to that.”

Giguere started to help Leary carry the load as the lead changed hands four times in the second quarter. His hoop triggered a 5-0 EL spurt to close the half, and the teams went into the locker room deadlocked at 20-20.

The Rams started the second half strong with a Hartley hoop and a Luke Hetterman 3. Three-pointers by Cody Nicholas, Giguere and Quin Leary and a drive for two by Mains built an 11-1 EL run for its first five-point lead.

“We didn’t want to let their outside shooters get going. You can’t just guard Bo Leary,” Reed said. “Our guys were sagging off a lot then to help on the inside and that really wasn’t what we wanted to do from the beginning.”

Blodgett salvaged the quarter for Bangor with a 3 to make it a two-point game heading into the fourth.

Bangor started the fourth quarter strong, too, taking a 37-33 lead with 3:10 left. A Mains 3 made it a one-point game again with 2:55 to go.

“In the second half, we got a little more aggressive,” Adams said. “They’re winners. They’re competitors. They’re a great group of kids. I can’t say enough about them. It will be a long time before you see a group come through and do what they’ve done the last four seasons (with four consecutive regional final appearances).”

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