Well, it was something. Not a highlight. But definitely unique.

No. 9 Lake Region’s boys basketball team decided its best chance to knock No. 1 Medomak Valley from the ranks of the unbeatens was to slow the pace in their Class B South quarterfinal Friday night. In a way, the plan worked. Medomak Valley scored only 14 points in the first half. Trouble was, Lake Region had zero. And the Lakers didn’t score in the first 6:40 of the second half, either.

By that point, the Panthers had adapted to the slow pace, found a bit of offensive rhythm, and held a 30-0 lead on the way to a 50-20 victory at the Portland Expo in a game that finished at 10:59 p.m.

“They were definitely changing our game up a bit, and we just stuck to our roots and matched their slowness and worked to our own shots, and the best we could do was our good defense, and it clearly worked out in the second half,” said Medomak junior guard Mason Nguyen, who scored 15 points.

Medomak Valley coach Nick DePatsy said that’s the first time he’s ever coached a team that shut out an opponent in the first half. And it was the first time he can recall seeing it happen in a boys game.

“It was a game where they wanted to limit our touches, limit our attempts, and they had to do what they had to do,” DePatsy said.

Medomak (19-0) will face No. 4 Lincoln Academy (13-6) in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Expo.

How did it happen?

• Slowly. Very, very slowly. Lake Region (10-10) made a conscious effort to hold the ball on its opening possessions, and that set a pace for the entire first half. The strategy did limit Medomak to eight points in the first quarter and six in the second quarter.

• Medomak Valley started to find its range and get multiple players involved in the third quarter, scoring the first 16 points to take a 30-0 lead.

• Brayden Wilson scored Lake Region’s first basket with 1:20 left in the third quarter, a 10-footer. Lake Region was 0 for 16 without a free-throw attempt before Wilson scored.

• The lead peaked at 50-9. Lake Region scored the final 11 points.

Wacky stats

• As if zero points in a half wasn’t odd enough, Lake Region took only one shot in the second quarter.

• By halftime, only two players had scored. Rocco DePatsy had eight of his 16 points, and Nguyen got the other six for Medomak Valley.

• Medomak’s Mr. Maine Basketball semifinalist, Gabe Lash, was held to two points on a pair of third-quarter free throws.

They said it

• “That’s the best team in the state of Maine. They have a lot of great players, and when they go up and down and play a lot of possessions, it’s extremely tough to beat. I thought for five or six minutes, we did a really good job with it. We missed some easy looks.” — Lake Region coach Ryan Martin, on why he had his team slowing the pace.