Bears pull off tournament stunner
Easton holds off undefeated Jonesport-Beals
Staff photo/Joseph Cyr
HUNTER TURNER of the Easton Bears eyes the basket as he prepares to get a shot up against Jonesport-Beals’ Vinal Crowley during Monday’s quarterfinal game at the Bangor Auditorium. Turner scored 22 points as No. 8 Easton upset the No. 1-ranked and previously-unbeaten Royals, 55-53.
BANGOR — In what can only be described as the upset of the tournament thus far, the No. 8 Easton boys knocked off defending state champs, and top seeded, Jonesport-Beals, 55-53, Monday night in Eastern Class D quarterfinal play at the Bangor Auditorium.
AGGRESSIVE DEFENSE — Cody Halvorson, 
left, was one of the Easton players assigned to guard Jonesport-Beals’ Garet Beal during Monday’s game. The Bears came through with a 55-53 victory.
The Bears (16-4 overall) now advance to Thursday’s semifinal round where they will face No. 5 Hodgdon (16-4) at 8:35 p.m. The two teams did not meet during the regular season. Jonesport-Beals ends its season with an 18-1 record.
For Easton, Hunter Turner tallied 22 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and a steal; Jerad Hafford added 13 points, six rebounds and four assists; and Logan Halvorson had 12 points and two rebounds.
Jonesport-Beals’ Garet Beal led all players with 38 points. Notably, he was held without a field goal in the first quarter, due in large part to the defensive scheme employed by the Bears.
Easton pulled off the shocking upset with a brilliant defensive alignment designed to frustrate Royals superstar Beal. Instead of matching its biggest player on Beal, Easton coach Dilllon Kingsbury, who is just a couple of seasons removed from playing on the Bangor Auditorium floor as part of the Presque Isle Wildcats, instead opted for a string of smaller, faster players to pester Beal throughout the night.
His inspiration for the defensive strategy came from his high school coach Tim Prescott.
Staff Photo/Joseph Cyr
CELEBRATING 
— Easton’s Logan Halvorson, left, and Jared Hafford join in the post-game celebration with a Bear teammate after Monday’s 55-53 victory over No. 1 Jonesport-Beals.
“It was sort of a hybrid defense of something we ran my sophomore year against Camden Hills,” he admitted. “We modified it a bit, but I knew they (Jonesport-Beals) would get aggressive if it was a tight game. I figured I wasn’t going to put my best big man (Turner) up against Garet (Beal) because I didn’t want to get him in foul trouble. Instead, I just rotated three guys and made them work extremely hard and it worked.”
Easton trailed 7-6 at the end of the first quarter, but turned things around in the second period, led by freshman Logan Halvorson, who drilled a pair of 3-pointers. The Bears took a 23-17 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The lead remained at six after three periods of play (36-30).
Beal, who is reported to be heading to the University of Maine next fall, tried carrying the Royals on his back in the fourth quarter, scoring 19 points in the frame. Every Royal run, however, was met with a score from the Bears, including two more 3-pointers from Halvorson.
Late in the fourth quarter, with the Bears clinging to a 42-40 advantage, the Royals star player had to come out of the game after blood was spotted dripping on his arm. Beal was out for about 1:30, during which time Easton pushed its lead to 45-40 on Halvorson’s fourth trey of the game.
Easton also did an exceptional job from the free throw line late in the fourth quarter. Turner gave Easton a 47-40 lead with less than two minutes to play when he hit a pair of foul shots. For the game, Easton was 13 of 20 (65 percent) from the foul line. Jonesport-Beals converted 15 of 21 (71 percent) of its free throws.
Beal, now back in the game, made a nifty move driving through the lane to cut the lead to 47-42 with 1:50 on the clock.
Easton’s Connor Burtt made the second of two free throws to put the Bears up 48-42 with 1:43 to play, but once again it was all Beal as he put up a short jumper to cut the lead to 48-44 with just over a minute to play.
Hafford drained an open jumper with 1:10 to go to push the Bear lead to 50-44, but the Royals were not done yet. Cole Beal hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 50-47 with 32 seconds to go.
Hafford converted a pair of foul shots with 29 second to go, giving Easton a 52-47 lead. After a Royal miss on the opposite end, Hafford was sent back to the foul line and this time made one of two free throws for a 53-47 lead.
Beal showed he could also score from beyond the 3-point arc as he connected for a trey with 7.8 seconds to play, cutting the lead to 53-50. Once again Hafford was fouled and sent to the line, making both foul shots for a 55-50 lead.
Beal hit again from long range as time expired for the 55-53 score.
Kingsbury said his strategy coming into the game was to get his players feeling comfortable and to enjoy the moment.
“I told the guys this is a fun environment to play in and to just go play,” Kingsbury said.
“The pressure was all on them (Jonesport-Beals), so I told them not to get ‘weirded out’ by anything and to just have fun.”
EASTON (55)
L. Halvorson 4 0-0 12, C. Halvorson, D. Sotomayor, Hafford 4 5-7 13, Turner 8 6-9 22, Burtt 3 2-4 8, Clark. Totals: 19 13-20 55. 3-pointers — L. Halvorson 4.
JONESPORT-BEALS (53)
Lyons 1 0-0 2, C. Beal 2 2-4 7, T. Beal, Crowley, Smith 3 0-0 6, G. Beal 11 13-17 38, K. Beal. Totals: 17 15-21 53. 3-pointers — G. Beal 3, C. Beal.
Bears 6 17 13 19 — 55
Royals 7 10 13 23 — 53
