enlarge Joe Phelan/Blethen Maine News Service

Brandon Lancaster, right, and Marc Zaharchuk cut down one of the nets after Richmond won the Western Class D boys’ basketball championship Saturday at the Augusta Civic Center.

AUGUSTA — Richmond hasn’t relied on Sam Carter to do a lot of scoring this season, but with its top two options being guarded closely Saturday in the Western Class D boys’ basketball championship game, Carter suddenly became a primary weapon for the Bobcats.

Carter, who had a total of just three points in Richmond’s previous two games, scored 23 points to help the top-ranked Bobcats overcome an early 16-point deficit and take a 61-57 win over Valley at the Augusta Civic Center.

Richmond (19-1) will face Central Aroostook (21-0) in the state championship game next Saturday at the Augusta Civic Center. It will be a rematch of the 2006 state final, won by Central Aroostook, 79-55.

With Valley defenders draped all over Richmond’s top two scorers, guard Brandon Lancaster and center Marc Zaharchuk, Carter went from an offensive afterthought to a scoring machine.

“I’ve never really been an offensive threat throughout the season,” acknowledged Carter.

Valley (16-4), the No. 2 seed, came out in a triangle-and-two defense and focused most of its attention on Zaharchuk and Lancaster. For one quarter, the strategy worked.

The Bobcats sputtered offensively while the Cavaliers purred. Curtis Miller scored 11 of his 24 points in the first quarter, and his driving layup in the final seconds of the quarter pushed Valley’s lead to 23-7.

“What you try and tell them in games like this when you get down early is there’s four quarters,” Richmond Coach Paul Lancaster said. “There’s 32 minutes of basketball, and you have to play for 32 minutes.”

Carter started out slowly, making just one of his first five shots, but the senior led a second-quarter surge during which the Bobcats went from 16 points down to one ahead in just over four minutes. Carter’s second 3-pointer of the quarter gave Richmond a 26-25 lead with 3:42 to go in the half.

“Sammy Carter today just played like a man. He stepped up, and I think he took the challenge,” Coach Lancaster said. “They were daring Sammy to shoot. He got his confidence. There was no holding him back. He was rebounding, playing defense. That was the best game I’ve seen him play in his career.”

“You get a couple of shots and they go in, you obviously get confidence a little bit,” Carter said. “I just kept shooting and they just kept going in.”

Walter Miller (14 points) hit two of his four 3-pointers in the second quarter for the Bobcats.

“I think we got too excited, and we started to hurry, again. And then we forgot to play defense. We couldn’t settle down,” Valley Coach Dwight Littlefield said.

“They’re so balanced. It’s hard to defend all those 3-point shooters, along with Zaharchuk. The Carter kid, after he missed the first couple, he started to make most of them. It was kind of a gamble, but it’s difficult to defend that many shooters.”

Richmond led 30-29 at the half and 42-38 after three. Lancaster and Zaharchuk each picked up their fourth foul in the final two minutes of the third quarter, but the Cavaliers couldn’t capitalize.

Carter sank a 3-pointer nine seconds into the fourth to push the Bobcats’ lead to 45-38, and Eric Murrin scored nine points in the fourth to help Richmond push its lead to 59-50 with one minute to go.

Zaharchuk finished with nine points and 11 rebounds, and Lancaster had three points, all on free throws.With the reserves playing well, Coach Lancaster never felt pressured to hurry his two leading scorers back into the game in foul trouble.

“Bruce Carver came in and played nice solid defense. Tommy Carver came in for a spell. They just kept us in it. If they could keep the lead while they were in there, I could keep Marc and Brandon on the bench for a longer...