Last year, the Machias boys basketball team’s season ended with heartbreak after an early-round upset in the postseason tournament. And for a moment in Thursday’s semifinal against Hodgdon, it looked like history might repeat itself as the Bulldogs got into foul trouble and couldn’t seem to quite close the Hawks out.
The key for Machias to get that win, as senior guard Liam O’Connor said, was to “stop playing like people that don’t know how to play basketball” against Hodgdon.
“We were out there playing like fifth graders — no discipline, missing free-throws, not stalling, and not even playing defense on the way back,” O’Connor said about part of Thursday’s game, noting that they eventually found their varsity ability.
And make no mistake, the Bulldogs didn’t ever look like fifth-graders in Saturday’s Class D North regional final. They looked like the top-ranked team that they are, as they bested a talented Madawaska Owls squad in a 61-57 win.
O’Connor had 12 points and six assists, and fellow senior guard Mickey Fitzsimmons led Machias in scoring with 20 points.
“We just wanted to get back here so bad,” Fitzsimmons told WHOU’s Dale Duff after the game. “And it’s so good to get the win.”
Madawaska star freshman Quinn Pelletier made the final score close at the end with a few desperation 3-pointers.
Machias head coach Chad Fitzsimmons, Mickey Fitzsimmons’ father, called it an amazing game that his team was able to hold on to win.
“It’s a blur right now, but we had a couple good runs there in the second quarter and in the third quarter, and just kind of held on,” the Machias coach said. “They really came back in the end hitting those 3s, but we were able to hang on.”
He said the team hangs its hat on its defense, and the Bulldogs made a point to up their defensive pressure in the third quarter when they expanded their lead after a close first half.
And it didn’t hurt that Mickey Fitzsimmons was locked in for the regional final.
“I could tell right from the beginning of the game, he was going to have a good game,” Chad Fitzsimmons said about his starting point guard and son. “He was on. He was getting to the hole and he was setting up others, and he just had an amazing game.”
