enlarge John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Alex Bowe of Cape Elizabeth finds room behind the Freeport defense for a layup Saturday during the Capers’ 57-50 victory. Cape will meet Maranacook in the state final Friday.

enlarge John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Game over, regional title won, and the Cape Elizabeth boys bounded onto the Cumberland County Civic Center court to celebrate Saturday after beating Freeport and clinching Western Class B for the first time since 1988.

Top-ranked Cape Elizabeth wasn’t going to hold anything back Saturday in the Western Class B boys’ basketball final.

And it didn’t.

The Capers got into their offense from the start and went on to their first regional title in 20 years with a 57-50 victory against sixth-seeded Freeport at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

Cape Elizabeth (19-2) won its 16th straight game and will play unbeaten Maranacook of Readfield for the state title at 9 p.m. Friday at the Bangor Auditorium.

“This feels great,” said Cape Elizabeth Coach Jim Ray. “I’ve always wondered what the next step would feel like.”

Under Ray, the Capers lost four straight regional finals from 1999 to 2002, once to York and three to Gorham.

“My brother called us the Buffalo Bills of Western Maine Class B back then,” he said.

Ray said he would enjoy this one before preparing for Maranacook, which beat the Capers by four points in the preseason.

Cape came out strong, sparked by Andrew Dickey, who won the Pierre Harnois Trophy as tourney MVP.Dickey hit a 3-pointer to make it 9-5, then later added two from the line to make it 13-5. Cape led 33-25 at halftime.

“We were going to attack from the start,” said Ray. “I thought our offense was a little tentative in the semifinals. I was so pleased with the way the boys did it.”

Alex Bowe led Cape Elizabeth with 21 points, including 18 in the middle quarters when the Capers scored 31 points and built their lead to 14.

“We moved the ball well,” said Bowe. “They tried to take one or two of us out of the offense, but we have several players who can score. Freeport made a run but we pulled it together.”

Freeport finally got into an offensive flow in the second half, led by Jon Klages, who got hot after struggling in the first half.

Trailing by 10 to start the fourth quarter, the Falcons climbed back and made it a game.

Klages, who hit a long 3-pointer at the end of the first half, scored seven straight points for Freeport to get his team back into it.

His 3-pointer from the side with 5:50 left made it 49-43. Then Tom Markelon hit two from line to cap a 9-3 run.

But Cape took advantage of being in the bonus at the line and scored its last eight points on free throws. After a basket by Klages made it 51-47, the Falcons went four minutes before scoring another basket, missing five straight shots.

Reid Christian scored what would be Freeport’s last basket with 1:21 remaining.

Freeport, (15-6), which was playing in its first regional championship game since 1970, knocked off third-seeded Mountain Valley and second-ranked Yarmouth in the first two rounds.

“To come from the No. 6 seed and reach the final is something,” said Freeport Coach Craig Sickels. “In my 21 years of coaching, I’ve never been prouder of a team.

“The keys to the game were Cape’s hot shooting and our inability to get to the foul line. We only got to the line eight times.”

With his strong second half, Klages rebounded to pace the Falcons with 15 points.

Staff Writer Tom Chard can be contacted at 791-6419 or at: tchard@pressherald.com