Tuesday looked like it was going to be Mt. View’s night for an upset.
With a 12-2 start, the ninth seeded Mustangs seemed ready to deal the Mattanawcook Academy Lynx their first and final loss of the season. But the Lynx had something to say about that, battling back in the second half to preserve their undefeated season and advance to the Class C boys North semifinals.
Mattanawcook came into the tournament with an 18-0 record, and hadn’t been tested quite like that.
“I was feeling a little bit shaky to be honest,” said Mattanawcook sophomore guard Kooper McCarthy after the 51-46 win. “But I knew we had the ability to fight back and get back into the game. So I wasn’t too worried.”
McCarthy’s effort when his team from Lincoln were at their lowest helped keep a bad start from turning disastrous. He hit a shot to make it 12-4, took a charge on defense, and then turned around to score two more points and keep the game a little closer.
He said his focus during the team’s slow start was to “just play defense like I know I can, attack the rim strong. Play my game.”
“Because once I get going, that kind of gets the whole team going with energy,” McCarthy said.
That might be why an “exhausted” Mattanawcook coach Adam Mahaney called him the Lynx’s floor general. Mahaney said his team was able to “weather the storm” by sticking to their gameplan.
“Kooper was our floor general. He led the way with running the point for us,” Mahaney said after the win. “I thought True Weatherbee did an amazing job down low for us, really utilizing his size and getting a lot of key rebounds for us. Carter Milner to start that fourth quarter came up huge, grabbing some rebounds and getting a layup.”
Mahaney also credited junior guard Avery Jordan and junior forward Andrew Oliver for making free throws down the stretch.
Oliver added some big plays around the rim in the fourth quarter including a very timely block. Sophomore forward Weatherbee reeled in a pair of impressive defensive rebounds in traffic, one of which he followed up with an acrobatic pass that couldn’t quite be discerned as intentional in real time.
“You know, True does some crazy things in practice,” Mahaney said with a laugh when asked about the play. “It wouldn’t shock me if he meant to go behind the back on that. If he did, it was a great heads up play, and maybe the Celtics will be calling him.”
Some spectators from Mt. View of Thorndike made it clear that they weren’t fans of the referees Tuesday night. But there was no arguing about the effort from the Mustangs, who proved that they were not just any other nine seed.
“Even though they’re labeled as a nine seed, they’re one of the stronger teams, I think, in the tournament,” McCarthy said about Mt. View. “So that was a big win.”
McCarthy led the Lynx in scoring with 17 points, followed by 10 for Oliver. Junior guard and forward Wyatt Bennett scored 13 for Mt. View and junior forward Brady Bryant added 12 for the Mustangs.
Mattanawcook will look to continue its perfect season on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. against No. 5 Fort Kent, which already embraced an underdog role in a Tuesday night win over No. 4 Hodgdon.
