In Maine high school boys basketball, holding the opponent to less than 40 points is an arduous task that even the best defensive teams can only expect to accomplish a handful of times each season.
Bangor Christian did it 16 times this year.
The Patriots rode their defense to the mountaintop this season, winning the Class D state tournament with a 66-36 rout of Stearns, a 40-33 win over two-time defending state champion Southern Aroostook, a 38-25 victory against undefeated Schenck and finally a 44-31 win over historical powerhouse Upper Kennebec Valley.
Even during the regular season, the Patriots’ defense was just as suffocating, allowing just 34.3 points per game and averaging 14.2 steals per game, on the way to a 15-3 record and the No. 2 seed in Class D North.
From day one, the Patriots envisioned their defense as the strongest part of their game and they weren’t afraid to go all in.
“We weren’t looking to score 70 points. We were looking to hold the opponent to 35 or 30,” five-year head coach Charlie Colson said. “There’s nothing that succeeds any more than the kids buying into what you’re trying to do, and really working at it — and that’s what those kids did. It’s realizing that, ‘Hey, 50 percent of this game is played without the ball in my hands.’”
For most of the regular season, Bangor Christian ran a 1-2-2 zone featuring lots of traps. Protecting the rim were Maine McDonald’s All-star Conrad Straubel and 6-foot-2 sophomore transfer Jesse Booker, on the wings were Class D tournament MVP Jalen Reed and speedy younger brother Rajon Reed, and pressuring the ball up top was lanky, 6-foot-3 senior Colton White. Off the bench, sophomore Elliot Straubel and senior Gabe Gahagan could be slotted in wherever.
Things were going swimmingly through the end of January, when suddenly White suffered a freak foot injury in practice, sending him to the emergency room with severe ligament damage and an ankle sprain, “totally changing the course of the season,” Colson said.
Knowing White — the lynchpin of Bangor Christian’s zone defense — wouldn’t be fully healthy until the back end of the postseason, the Patriots hit the practice floor and film room, developing their man-to-man defense that would end up leading them to glory.
“It took a little bit of learning, but it was obvious that man-to-man was the way we needed to go,” Colson said. “We spent a long time watching tape — I told my wife I thought my eyes were coming out of my head — solidifying what we were doing with our assignments, and we shut them down. When you hold a team to the points we held Schenck and Valley to, it’s a team effort.”
Against Schenck, the Reed brothers matched up with all-tournament stars Mason McDunnah and Owen Wyman, holding the duo to just 17 total points, and combining for eight steals and three blocks. Against Valley, the Reed brothers took on standout sophomores Fisher Tewksbury and Harry Louis, combining for seven steals and five blocks.
Meanwhile, the Straubel brothers, Booker and company rebounded with tenacity, plugged the lanes and played tremendous help defense.
“I thought Conrad played the best two defensive games he’s ever played, and so did Elliot,” Colson said. “Jesse was just a force inside, and the two Reed boys were just above and beyond. Their work speaks for themselves.”
As for Bangor Christian’s offense, the Patriots certainly didn’t need too much of it. In the regular season, they averaged 53.7 points per game, but the low 40s proved to be enough against the state’s toughest opposition.
“If we’re playing hard on defense, then we’re getting the looks we want on offense. That creates a lot of our scoring — steals, rebounding and pushing the ball in transition,” four-year starter Jalen Reed said. “We all love to play defense. We had the pieces, we all believed in ourselves and we all wanted it so bad.”