The Wisdom High School boys basketball team didn’t need to take a school bus to Monday’s Class D quarterfinal against Schenck of East Millinocket at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
They could have just taken a minivan.
There are only six boys on the team. They had seven but one transferred at midseason.
Undefeated and top seeded Schenck beat the Pioneers 74-21 but they impressed Schenck coach Aaron Hutchins and his outstanding senior guard Mason McDunnah with their effort.
Wisdom wound up 7-13.
“It would have been easy for them to drop the program but they didn’t. And they don’t quit. They’re competitors,” said Hutchins, noting that the two teams met in the eight-person North championship soccer game which was won by Schenck 2-1.
“They gave us a battle today,” said McDunnah, who had a game-high 23 points.
Wisdom coach Nate Boynton said it wasn’t difficult coaching his team.
“There’s not much to balance. You try to stay out of foul trouble. We do what we can with what we have,” said Boynton. “They work hard to get their conditioning in.”
Standout junior guard Camden Pelletier, who had a team-high 13 points, said conditioning isn’t an issue.
“We all played (eight-person) soccer and our conditioning carried over,” said Pelletier.
Pelletier had the ball most of the time as the point guard but said his fatigue is short-lived.
“I get tired the first couple of minutes. But then it goes away. I don’t know what the deal is with that,” said Pelletier.
Hutchins called Pelletier the “ultimate competitor.”
“He’s tough,” agreed McDunnah who also faced him three times during soccer season.
Schenck won both regular season soccer games, also.
Pelletier is one of two juniors on the team along with one sophomore, two freshmen and an eighth grader.
“We’re super young. We don’t have any seniors and we’ll be getting a couple of additions next year,” said Boynton.
He said they never had to play with four this season due to foul trouble, sickness or injury.
“We made a lot of progress during the season and it looks good from here on out (for next season),” said Pelletier.
