High School Sports blog

GIRLS BASKETBALL: Important games this week

Amy Calder — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:45:21 GMT

Here’s a look at some of the big games this week involving local girls basketball teams:

Mt. Blue at Messalonskee, tonight

Both teams are safely in the Eastern A playoffs, but this is Messalonskee’s last chance to beat one of the top four teams in Eastern A. The Eagles lost by eight to Edward Little and by 15 to Mt. Ararat. Mt. Blue could conceivably slip in to the No. 2 seed with a win, which would be a remarkable accomplishment for a team that was 4-14 last season and 0-18 the winter before that.

Mt. Abram at Madison, tonight

The top four teams in Western C get a bye, and Mt. Abram could possibly grab one of those spots by winning this game. The Roadrunners traditionally have a tough time in Madison — even when they won the state title in 2007, they lost 57-32 in Madison — but lost by only two to the Bulldogs earlier this season at home. Madison will be either the first or second seed in the playoffs.

Leavitt at Gardiner, Thursday

Gardiner needs this one to get one of the top three spots in Eastern B and avoid a preliminary-round game. Leavitt beat the Tigers, 78-57, earlier this season. Gardiner will need a superior effort from its defense to win the rematch. The Tigers have hit 60 points three times, all in blowouts, while Leavitt has been under 60 points only once in 16 games.

As season comes to an end, playoffs begin to take shape

Betty Adams — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:39:33 GMT

The big game tonight in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A is Lawrence at Bangor, but all it may decide is which team gets to wear home whites when they meet again in the regional quarterfinals.

Bangor (12-4) is currently the No. 4 seed in Eastern Class A, and Lawrence (10-6) is No. 5. If Lawrence wins, it gives the Bulldogs a season sweep of Bangor, and likely vaults Lawrence into fourth place.

Lewiston (13-3) and Mt. Blue (12-4) are in a fight for the No. 2 seed. Lewiston currently holds a three point edge over Mt. Blue. Lewiston hosts Mt. Ararat (2-14) tonight, and plays at rival Edward Little (10-6) to close the regular season. Mt. Blue hosts Messalonskee (2-14) and travels to Oxford Hills (5-11) for the season finale.

• Valley ended its regular season with a win over Pine Tree Academy on Monday. The Cavaliers won their last five games to finish 14-4, and will go into the Class D West tournament as the No. 3 seed.

• Forest Hills needs a win over Seacoast Christian and a Hyde loss to the Gould School in order to hold onto the top spot in Class D West.

BOYS BASKETBALL: Maranacook/Waterville tidbits

Tony Ronzio — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:14:48 GMT

A few tidbits from Waterville’s 58-54 overtime win against Maranacook in Waterville on Friday night.

• There was an interesting battle between Maranacook junior Kyle Boucher and Waterville junior JP MIchaud, both 6-foot-7. Boucher finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks while Michaud scored eight points, grabbed 12 rebounds and hit the game-tying shot at the end of regulation.

“He’s quite a competitor," Michaud said of his counterpart. “He doesn’t crash much He kind of hangs on the 3-point line. He wants to drive and dunk.”

Of Boucher’s shot-blocking, Michaud added: “He’s smart about it, he waits.”

• The Purple Panthers survived in the final minute of regulation despite two crucial mistakes. In trying to foul the Black Bears, who were leading, they were twice called for intentional fouls. Maranacook made 2 of 4 but couldn’t capitalize on the extra possession.

• Neither team shot well from the foul line. Maranacook made 9 of 18 while Waterville shot 6 of 14, including 2 for 9 in overtime.

• There was a problem with the clock late in regulation. It kept running after a Maranacook foul was called and was finally stopped with 1 minute, 11 seconds left. Ten seconds was added to the time but Maranacook fans objected that is was much more.

“There was 1:21 when I saw it, but I know it was running before then,” Maranacook coach Rob Schmidt said. “The crowd seemed to think it was at 1:34 from what i heard, but we definitely lost some time.”

• Waterville won without sophomore starter Chris Hale who has a broken nose and 3-point specialist Brandon Bailey who has a sprained ankle. Both are expected to return next week. So is coach Jason Briggs, who missed the game due to illness.

“He was really sick,” assistant coach Andy Brewer said. “He was sick enough that on his way to the game he turned around and went to the doctor’s to get checked out.”

• Both teams will squeak into the tournament. Maranacook held down the 11th spot in Class B West (12 teams go) while Waterville was 12th in Class B East where 13 teams go to the postseason. Next year, both teams should be near the top of the conference. Waterville returns 10 players while Maranacook brings back 12.

Odds and ends heading into the final week of the season

Betty Adams — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:11:04 GMT

It looks like Hampden Academy has the top seed in the upcoming Eastern Class A boys basketball tournament locked up, but spots two through seven are in flux.

The winner of Friday's game between Mt. Blue (11-4) and Lawrence (10-5) could jump into second place. Lawrence also has a big game at Bangor (11-4) next Tuesday. Mt. Blue is coming off a big overtime win at Bangor, the first time any members of the Mt. Blue varsity basketball team had defeated Bangor in any sport.

• The surprise of the Mountain Valley Conference might be Madison. The Bulldogs won just five games last season, but Thursday's win over Wiscasset improved Madison to 9-7. The Bulldogs are in fourth place in the Western Class C standings.

Madison closes the regular season with games against Mt. Abram and Winthrop, and it looks like the Bulldogs will hold on to either the four or five seed in the tournament, avoiding the preliminary round.

• It looks like Winslow (9-6) will finish in either sixth or seventh place in Eastern Class B. The Black Raiders close the regular season with games against Belfast, Mt. View and Oak Hill. Currently seventh, Winslow could move up a spot if Presque Isle (10-5) stumbles against John Bapst, Fort Kent or Caribou.

GIRLS BASKETBALL: Oxford Hills/Cony tidbits

Tony Ronzio — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:19:40 GMT

A few notes from Cony’s 52-33 win against Oxford Hills in Augusta on Monday night.

• The Rams are four wins away from an unbeaten regular-season which would be their first since 2006. That year, they lost to Sanford in the Class A state final. They last finished unbeaten, including the tournament, in 2005.

• This year’s team doesn’t have the size that those mid-decade team possessed. Melanie Guzman is the team’s tallest player at 5-foot-10. But the Rams do get after it on the boards. In addition to Guzman, Josie Lee and Mia Diplock, both 5-8, are good rebounders. Lee leads the conference at over 11 boards a game.

• Cony’s big three also set the example when it comes to playing hard. All three hit the floor numerous times Monday for loose balls. “If anybody watches the film, she was all over the place,” Cony coach Karen Magnusson said of Guzman. “I felt like it was a 6 on 5 having Guz go all over.”

• Lee, likewise, dived on the floor, often just to get a hand on the ball. “That’s one thing I think our team does well. When they see that people want to join them.”

• Colby College women’s basketball coach and former Cony star Julie Veilleux took in Monday’s game , watching, among others, Diplock who is expected to attend the Waterville school next year.

• Like many teams in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference next year, Oxford Hills should be a contender. They return point guard Abbie Eastman and center Alex Rowe who combined for 22 of the team’s 33 points. “Other kids on our team have to be confident to shoot the ball,” Oxford Hills coach Nate Pelletier said. “They have the ability to.”

• The Vikings (6-8) have developed a good rivalry with Cony and have pulled a couple of recent upsets. “They love playing against Cony,” Pelletier said. “For us over the last four or five years it’s been a pretty big rivalry for us.”

BOYS HOCKEY: MHW keeps pace

Betty Adams — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:11:26 GMT

KENTS HILL — The Maranacook/Hall-Dale/Winthrop co-operative hockey team edged Gray-New Gloucester/Poland 4-3 in an Eastern A game Monday at Bonnefond Ice Arena.

Here’s a few notes from the game ...

• Dan Condon is having himself a season for the Hawks (8-4-0). He’s scored more than 20 points and is a game-changer on the ice.
Condon brings the rare combination of size and speed and is difficult to knock off the puck. He has a quick shot, gets to the net and loves the corners.
He was a handful Monday for the Patriotic Knights, who just couldn’t match up with him.

Condon scored a goal, a rebound in the slot, that gave MHW a brief 2-1 lead in the second period. MHW was switching up its defensive pairings, so it had just three players on the ice when Condon collected the puck in the slot and still got a shot on net despite two defenders playing him.
“I just wanted to get it on net,” he said.What happens when you put the puck on the net?
That’s right, good things.

• The Hawks did come out a bit flat Monday, something Condon said is a concern.
“I don’t know why we did,” he said. “We came out flat but we caught up.”
MHW coach Andy Dube said the Knights (2-9-0) just took it to the Hawks early.
“We couldn’t get anything together,” he said. “(GNG) played hard. They came at us. They played in our faces. We didn’t have the energy early.”

• MHW is all but assured to qualify for the Eastern A playoffs. The Hawks sit in third place in Eastern A Heal points, behind Lewiston (8-3-1) and Bangor (10-1-0) but ahead of St. Dominic (7-3-0). The Hawks haven’t played Lewiston or St. Dom’s and are 0-2-0 against Bangor.
However, they are a combined 4-0-0 against three teams — Cony, Edward Little and Brunswick — that are right behind them in the standings.

• Ian Palmer may not be the smoothest skater on the ice, or the fastest, but the MHW senior captain may be the most intimidating.
Palmer, who played linebacker for the Maranacook football team, doles out his share of big hits on the ice, as well.On two occasions Monday an opposing player abandoned the puck to avoid contact with Palmer. On one of those instances, Palmer collected the puck and started an odd-man rush the other way.

BOYS BASKETBALL: Rare mistake goes against Lawrence

Betty Adams — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:48:23 GMT

Bangor inbounded the ball to start the second quarter of Tuesday night's boys basketball game at Lawrence, and the Rams ran their offense for 15 seconds until a whistle stopped play.

The problem? Bangor won the opening tip, and with no jump ball situations in the first quarter, Lawrence should have started the quarter with the ball.

"It was our ball and no one picked it up until the ball came in bounds," Lawrence head coach Mike McGee said.

Once the ball is put in play, however, nothing can be done, McGee said.

The mixup had no bearing on the outcome of the game, a 45-41 Lawrence win, and the Bulldogs were awarded the ball to start the second half.

BOYS BASKETBALL: Free throws still not falling

Betty Adams — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:47:52 GMT

The free throw has been a lost art in Maine high school basketball for years. Unfortunately, the ability to make this simple 15-foot, uncontested shot appears to be getting even worse.

The season is a month old now, and I’ve seen four separate team shoot 50 percent or less from the foul line in a game. On Saturday, I saw the Phillips Exeter prep team, a squad made up of extremely talented players from around the nation, shoot 40 percent (8 of 20) from the line in an 82-70 loss at Maine Central Institute.

On Friday, I saw Brunswick’s Melanie Bryant go 8 for 8 from the line. Efforts like Bryant’s should be closer to the norm, not the exception.

I see no reason why a team should not be able to make 70 percent of its foul shots. So far this season, I’ve seen three teams reach that .700 threshold: the Nokomis boys (.714, 15 for 21) in a 66-58 loss at Winslow; the Winslow boys (.833, 10 for 12) in a 67-46 win at Waterville; and the Brunswick girls (.789, 15 for 19) in a 58-32 loss at Mt. Blue. The Winslow boys came close, 30 of 43, in that win over Nokomis.

In February, you will see a the outcome of a tournament game change because one team will not make free throws, guarantee that. Ultimately, I think making a free throw comes down to two things: repetition and concentration. If you get the same shooting motion down cold, and you focus on the basket, you’ll make your foul shots.

It’s obvious not enough players are doing that.

BOY BASKETBALL: Hall-Dale/Winthrop tidbits

Betty Adams — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:46:12 GMT

A few tidbits from Hall-Dale’s 56-47 win against Winthrop on Monday night in Farmingdale.

• Many of the fans in attendance weren’t even born when Cameron Brown starred at Hall-Dale and led them to state title in 1974. They got a sense of his career Monday when his No. 34 jersey was retired in a ceremony before the game. Along with Brad Moore, who preceded Brown by three years, he is Hall-Dale’s most accomplished male star.

• Brown, who finished with 1,215 points in his career, is one of six male players at Hall-Dale to score over 1,000 points. The others include Moore, Scott Woodside, Matt Wheelock, Chris Benner and Ryan Leach.

• While Brown’s jersey will be retired in the school’s trophy case, Hall-Dale coach Jim Patrick presented Brown with a No. 34 game jersey on behalf of the team that he could take home.

• Brown’s oldest son Cameron played basketball at Rockland High School, where he was also named valedictorian, and for a year at Bates College.

• Winthrop’s Taylor Morang showed a few growing pains in turning the ball over against Hall-Dale pressure. But the freshman point guard did many more good things than bad. He showed excellent court awareness in finding teammates and showed a knack for scoring on tough drives, including two layups against 6-foot-5 center Sam Shepherd.

• Shepherd, who is averaging seven blocked shots a game, finished with four as he played for a little over two quarters. He also led the team with eight rebounds.

• Hall-Dale is in fourth place in the Western Maine Class C tournament standings at 10-3 after going 6-12 last season. The Bulldogs face their toughest opponent of the season Thursday night at unbeaten Dirigo.

• Winthrop senior Tyler Foster has played several roles for the Ramblers. He’s the team’s best rebounder (he had eight Monday) and often helps dribble the ball against pressure. He’s also a good outside shooter.

• The Ramblers also got a nice effort from another freshman, Dakota Carter, who scored two points, grabbed four rebounds and played solid defense in a reserve role.

GIRLS BASKETBALL: Nokomis-Leavitt tidbits

Angie Muhs — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:22:31 GMT

A few extra notes from a game that definitely deserves a few extra notes:

• First, a clarification from my game story. At the end of the game, after Sarah Frost scored to pull Leavitt within one, Nokomis forward Marissa Shaw was not “falling” out of bounds while holding the ball. Shaw got the ball out of bounds, and because she knew the clock would run out before she had to inbound, she just held the ball and time ran out. It was a great, heady play.

• This was the most entertaining game I’ve seen since....well, since these teams played in the regular season last winter. The crowd was great on both sides, and added a lot to the excitement. I was sitting near a few young boys, and usually, when I go to girls games, boys of that age group don’t really watch the game. They just mess around and treat the stands like a big playhouse. Last night, they were watching the game and cheering and standings on the seats. That’s how good of a game it was.

• There was an odd incident in overtime. With Nokomis ahead 55-53 and 2:45 to play, Leavitt’s Kristen Anderson missed a shot from about 15 feet and was fouled. The officials awarded Anderson three foul shots, instead of two, and she made all three to give the Hornets a one-point lead. Fortunately, it didn’t have an impact on the outcome.

• A couple odd stats: Shaw played the entire fourth quarter and overtime and didn’t have a rebound, and she still had 16 boards. Leavitt had 55 field goal attempts, and 35 of them were by Anderson.

• One reason Nokomis has kept rolling this season is the emergence of sophomore Anna Mackenzie. The Warriors had a big advantage inside with Mackenzie and Shaw, and since Nokomis also has players who can shoot the three, it’s tough to stop the inside game. On Tuesday, Mackenzie and Shaw combined to shoot 17 for 26, or 65 percent.

“If the focus on me, then they have Anna. If they focus on Anna, they have me,” Shaw said. “Then we have people on the bench who are out here, and they do an outstanding job. Traci (Carson), today, she was great. So that helps a lot.”