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Wednesday’s prelims were mostly chalk with a couple of slight 8/9 upsets.
In C North boys, the Mount View Mustangs picked right up where they left off last year, handling Fort Fairfield rather easily, 64-43. Stuart Knowlton had 21 to lead the way, Wyatt Bennett added 19, and that sound you hear is a collective groan from the coaches seeded 1 through 7. Does Mount View have another run in them?
The other upset came in B North boys (because of course it did). Belfast continued their remarkable turnaround by beating Houlton 67-60 behind 25 points, 16 rebounds and six blocked shots from Trevin Ripley. The Belfast bus probably just floated the two and a half hours home.
The Lions will get their toughest test with the top seeded-Caribou on Saturday.
Elsewhere
Add Old Town’s Emmitt Byther to the 1,000 point club. Liam Tiernan had 21 in Marshwood’s win over Biddeford. Windham kicked off their title defense with a rout of Bangor. Creighty Dickson led with 23. Adam Fitzgerald led a Scarborough second half rally to beat Deering. He scored 17. Bonny Eagle beat Sanford in overtime. The Scots had five players score between nine and 13 points in a balanced attack. Winslow used a big third quarter to beat Maranacook, despite leading scorer Braden Rodrigue being held to eight points. JJ Carlo’s 25 wasn’t enough to give Waynflete an upset over Winthrop. Instead the Ramblers will take that school bus to Augusta. Dirigo needed a big game from Nathaniel Wainwright to take down Old Orchard Beach in overtime. He had 26, including six of their eight in the extra period. Ricardo Louis had 14 and 13 to help Temple fend off 27 points from Greenville’s Liam Mason. Scarborough rallied down eight to beat TA in the AA South 4/5 game. Ellie Rumelhart led the way with 17. Caitlyn McCoy had 16 and Bella Smith added 15 in Leavitt’s win over Yarmouth.
And new this year, assuming there’s no issues (knock on wood), Maine Basketball Rankings will have live stats from all four venues, thanks to a collaboration with the Maine Principals’ Association!
Game of the day
The Hermon girls did not have a great middle to their season, losing seven of nine, but rallied down the stretch to win their final 5, including a big win over Old Town that got them a home prelim. They then beat Belfast in the prelim to get to the quarterfinals.
There they’ll take on a very young Erskine team that faltered a little down the stretch, losing two of their last four, including to a Mount View team that I’m circling as my Cinderella pick in C North.
Can the Eagles handle the pressure of the spotlight or will Hermon stay hot?
