Regional final Friday is always bittersweet, in a way. It’s the beginning of the end of a long season and if you’ve been at a tourney site all week, you’re both exhausted and sad that the best week of the year is almost over.
Let’s start at the Expo, which tipped off earlier than anyone else.
The Biddeford girls were relegated to class B last year, but thanks to an influx of young talent, they made it to the regional final against the defending champs from Oceanside and, well, it wasn’t close. The Mariners stuck around for a bit, but Biddeford ran away with it in the second half, 62-38. Ayla Lagasse led the way with 15 and 10.
They’ll face Caribou, who made short work of Erskine to win the North. Madelynn Deprey had 18 and 8 for the Vikings.
Relegation will very likely look a lot different in the next cycle and a lot of people will be pointing to the Biddeford girls as Exhibit A of why it doesn’t work. But for every Biddeford, there are a bunch of other teams that got relegated and won five or six (or fewer) games in the lower class. Relegation isn’t the problem. It’s actually been really good state-wide. It just needs to be tweaked going forward.
Medomack Valley — York
That took us to the B South boys game between 20-0 Medomak Valley and 20-0 York, the first matchup of 20-0 boys teams since Ellsworth and Camden back in 2011 (hat tip, Michael Hoffer).
This was a good game, even if the Medomak Valley Panthers weren’t interested in hearing about York’s lineup. York opened up a 7-point lead in the first half before Medomak rallied and we went into halftime tied at 20.
For all the talk of their offense, the story of this game was York’s defense, which was incredible. You had to think a game played in the 40s would benefit Medomak, but York seemed to have no problems playing in that space.
They gave Medomak fits on the perimeter, holding the Panthers to 7 percent from deep in the game. They slowly pulled out to another lead and then with a minute and a half left, Medomak got a golden opportunity. With York leading 44-37, Lukas Bouchard fouled Gabe Lash on a drive and Lash went down hard and stayed down for a couple minutes.
The foul was Bouchard’s fifth and he had opinions on this that the refs didn’t want to hear, so he picked up a technical foul on his way to the bench. Lash was still down as all this was happening. Lash got back up, clearly in pain, and walked gingerly to the free throw line, where he proceeded to miss both free throws. And then Kristian Schumann made one of the two technical free throws. So instead of down 3 with the ball, they were down 6 with the ball.
York got a stop and scored on the other end. Medomak missed two more free throws and York was able to seal the win to move to 21-0.
Bouchard led York with 16 points. Reece MacDonald added 14. Lash had 9 points and 11 rebounds.
York will face Caribou in the title game after the Vikings erased a six-point Orono lead in the fourth quarter.
Mt. Ararat – Gray New Gloucester
In its game against Gray-New Gloucester, Mt. Ararat raced out to a 15-5 lead at the end of one and were in control throughout.
For a team that just barely survived in the quarterfinals, they easily and impressively dominated the regional final to win the first regional title — boys or girls — in school history.
They’ll face Hampden in the title game after the Broncos outlasted Camden in double overtime, an ending I watched at the Expo in between games along with a number of new friends sitting behind me and watching over my shoulder.
Camden led by 8 in the third quarter before Hampden rallied and needed a Maren Johnson bucket in the final seconds of regulation to force overtime and a Tallulah Marks bucket at the end of overtime to force double overtime.
In the end, Hampden prevailed to end Camden’s Cinderella run.
Game of the Day
Falmouth and Noble split the season series, with each team winning on their home floor and Falmouth having a 1-point advantage overall. The Model had Noble by 2.2 so there was every reason to believe this would be a close game.
The Expo was packed. The atmosphere was electric. The game was awesome.
It was everything you’d want from a regional final. There were seven lead changes and five ties. Some of the best players in the state made big shot after big shot.
And if there was any doubt about who should win Mr. Basketball, Jamier Rose ended that debate last night. He was awesome in the second half, making big play after big play, including a three to give Noble the lead with 2½ minutes left, a couple of incredible passes and his usual stellar defense. And on Falmouth’s side, Davis Mann continued his incredible tourney run with big shot after big shot.
I thought it would be hard to beat the triple overtime game between Lincoln Academy and Yarmouth, but this one did it. I actually had a spotter today, Owen, and we kept looking at each other in shock.
With Falmouth up 4, Rose found Bryce Guitard for a clutch three with 10.6 seconds left. Falmouth’s Jaxson Cameron hit both free throws to give the Navs a 3-point lead, Noble quickly advanced the ball and called time, setting up this.
As someone who has friends at both schools and is neutral, we deserved overtime in this game.
Davis Mann and Billy Birks each had 17 for Falmouth. Jamier Rose had 24 points, four assists, and three steals for Noble, and Bryce Guitard added 20.
This was an amazing two-year run from Noble and coach (and podcast guest) John Morgan. This was a program that lost to a 9-9 Class C team pretty recently and has now been in 2 straight regional finals.
I’m sad that we’ve got no more Jamier Rose games, but I also would have been sad that we had no more Davis Mann games.
