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The first day of the tournament did not disappoint (it never does).
Let’s start at the Expo in Portland, which kicked off with the B South boys.
For years, Spruce Mountain has struggled at the Expo. The Talking Heads (and by that, I mean old guys at the end of the bar) have said for years that the Phoenix can’t win on the big floor.
They’ve all got their reasons, but always seem to forget that Spruce has just been a little unlucky these last couple of years. They had York on the ropes last year as an underdog. They lost to Lincoln Academy in overtime the year before that. These things happen.
For a while, it looked like they were going to break through yesterday against Oceanside. They had seven steals in the first quarter as their defense — keyed by Cai Dougher — was everywhere. But, when Oceanside could get a look, it went in. Connor Kingsbury and Jackson Kay went 5/9 from three in the first half to stay alive, while Spruce shot 2/15 from deep. They kept it up in the second half, while Spruce’s Jace Bessey kept watching shots rattle around and fall out. When Kay gave Oceanside a 5-point lead with 3 minutes to go, it looked bad for the Phoenix. But like he had all game, Cai Dougher came through when Spruce needed him. He hit two free throws to stop the bleeding, scored to give them the lead with a minute left and hit four more free throws down the stretch to seal it.
Cai Dougher was awesome all game long. He had 32 points, 10 rebounds, five steals, and a rim-shaking dunk.
But as they’d done all game, Oceanside took one last opportunity to cash in a clean look from three.
Kingsbury was 6/9 from three for 22 points. Jackson Kay added 18 points to go with 12 rebounds.
In the 2/10 game, York made short work of Cape Elizabeth. Reece MacDonald scored 19 points in only 20 minutes.
Up in Bangor, the Erskine girls won a thriller that was not without drama.
In the third quarter, Hermon got a bench technical for not having a player in the book, which has to be the worst technical to get because it’s so avoidable. Kelsie Dunn hit both free throws, so when at the end of the game, Hermon hit a 3 at the buzzer, instead of it being for the win, it only cut the lead to 1.
Erskine survives.
In Augusta, Cony survived a scare from Skowhegan. Morgan Fichthorn led the way with 22, including her 1,000th point.
The Lincoln Academy boys were in a difficult spot on Friday. Because their head coach Ryan Ball got ejected in the final game of the regular season, he was unable to coach in the quarterfinals (Maine Principals’ Association rule). He wasn’t even allowed in the building. So it was up to assistant coach Rand Maker to lead the charges in the always difficult 4/5 game.
But if that wasn’t hard enough, they were missing Terry Welle, their third-leading scorer, with an ankle injury.
Not surprisingly, they struggled in the first half. Yarmouth’s defense gave them trouble on the perimeter (the Hunt twins had two points in the first half) and without Welle couldn’t get anything going down low and Maker couldn’t seem to find a lineup combination that worked. Yarmouth led by five at the half behind nine points from Evan Oranellas.
An Adam Maxwell bucket pushed the lead to 10 in the 3rd and it stayed in the 5-8 range until a Lincoln timeout with about 5 minutes to play. And that’s around the time Maker found a lineup that worked. Lincoln went on a 6-0 run out of the timeout, with the Hunt brothers scoring all six.
They would make one more substitution the rest of the way.
Roan Donaghy hit a 3-pointer to tie it at 41. Maxwell answered and Donaghy scored again and we were off to overtime.
Drew Hunt opened the OT with a triple. Yarmouth answered with free throws. Robert Wolff missed a jumper and we were off to double overtime. This time, Maxwell scored off the jump ball, then Wolff scored to make it four. Donaghy hit another 3 (he was awesome down the stretch). Evan Oranellas hit a 3 to tie it at 56 and we went to a third overtime.
Meanwhile, the last game in Augusta was already at halftime.
The third OT was scoreless for the first 3 minutes. Dudes were gassed. Yarmouth went 2/7 from the line in the second and third overtimes. But Donaghy hit two free throws. Chase Coffin added another. And Lincoln Academy survived.
Roan Donaghy had 16 and eight. Evan Oranellas had 19 and four for Yarmouth.
Afterward, the Eagles celebrated assistant coach Rand Maker for his first (and only) win.
As good as that game was, the next one between Medomak and Lake Region — was just as bad.
Lake Region didn’t go into a stall exactly, but they weren’t in a hurry, content to burn clock and shorten the game. This is a strategy underdogs will sometimes use in tournament play. The idea is the superior team, given a long enough game, will always win, so you minimize their possessions and you increase your chances of winning. This works best against a high-octane offense. This year’s Caribou boys come to mind. Last year’s Oceanside team is a good example. In fact, Medomak tried a version of this on Oceanside to try and grind the Galley twins to a halt. It’s less effective against a defensive team, as they’re used to swallowing up your offense.
The problem is you have to score. And you have to take open looks when you get them. Because in order for the strategy to have a chance, you have to get a lead.
If not, you risk angering the Basketball Gods.
After one it was 8-0 Medomak and still Lake Region worked the clock. Medomak wasn’t exactly lighting things up on the offensive end — they looked out of sync — but they didn’t need to score much at all to win. At the half, it was 14-0. Lake Region finally scored on a Braydan Wilson layup with 1:16 left in the third quarter, but by that time, they were down 30-2. They got moving in the 4th quarter to make it somewhat respectable, but it was ugly.
Elsewhere
Claire Gaetani had 35 points in Bapst’s upset of Old Town. Rose Tohanczyn had 30 and seven in Camden’s win over Gardiner. Grace LeBree had 14 and 10 as Hampden blew out Brewer.
Game of the Day
It’s a 4/5 game between Camden Hills and Cony boys.
They teams just played a 70-68 thriller back on Jan. 31.
What more do you need?
