By By DAN WEISS / Niles Daily Star
BANGOR -- Wearing green-trimmed uniforms on St. Patrick's Day didn't bring the Hartford basketball team muck luck here Wednesday night.
The Buchanan varsity basketball team pressed yet another opponent into submission, claiming a 66-33 win over the Indians to advance to Friday night's Class C Regional Tournament championship game against Kalamazoo Christian.
Leading by just nine points at halftime, Buchanan opened the second half with an alley-oop pass from Gordon Bryant to a soaring Tony Robinson for a monster dunk just 10 seconds into the third quarter.
From that point on, the Bucks outscored Hartford 17-1 in the first four minutes of the period and built a 53-31 lead by the end of the quarter.
The two teams played to a 12-12 tie in the first quarter. Hartford senior Jamin Olds, who leads the area in scoring at 27 points per game, scored six points in the first half but managed just five more the rest of the game.
Buchanan opened the game with Bryant guarding Olds. Bryant stuck close to Olds no matter how far he was from the ball.
Hartford opened the second quarter with a 6-0 run and built an 18-12 lead.
Early foul trouble forced Buchanan starters Robinson and Zack Bonham to miss most of the first half and opened the door for DuJuan Bennett and P.J. Pollock.
Bennett and Pollock came off the bench to score six and seven points, respectively, in the second quarter as Buchanan mounted a 9-0 run that erased the Indians' lead and the Bucks never trailed again.
Jacob Brown also came off the bench to score five points for Buchanan.
Olds finished with 11 points for Hartford, which ends the season with a record of 14-10. Chad Moore added 10 points for the Indians.
Bryant led Buchanan with 15 points. Brian Shannon scored 12 and Robinson added 10.
The Bucks are now 13-11.