If you’re a fan of back-and-forth basketball games where whoever holds the ball last is likely to win, Tuesday was not your day.
Let’s start in Portland with the B South girls semifinals, where we started with a little bit of history.
Spruce Mountain came out with a bit of a junk defense on Medomak’s Kytana Williamson and it worked. Medomak got off to a slow start and after one quarter, it was 13-4 Spruce.
Avery Bessey was the hero in this one. She hit two 3s in the second quarter, each of them stopping Medomak’s efforts to make some progress and it was 24-12 at the half, with a lot of the scoring coming from the free throw line and probably a lot more of it should have, as both defenses were active and physical. There were a combined 10 steals and 41 turnovers in the first half.
Bessey’s second 3 was actually a buzzer-beater, which gave WHOU a live game situation to further test the replay.
Medomak had cut the lead to 8 when Sara Nelson fouled out with five minutes left. She led the Panthers with 11 and had 2 big 3s. But Medomak wasn’t done. Center Maya Cannon stole the ball on consecutive possessions and her third steal led to a Chloe Fox layup that would have cut it to 1, but it rolled out. Jazmine Pingree made her free throws down the stretch and Spruce survived, 40-34.
Kytana Williamson and Jadyn Pingree combined for three made field goals. Both teams did a fantastic job taking away the other team’s star.
And THAT was the closest game of the day.
In the second game, Lake Region’s hot shooting gave them an early lead, but Oceanside put Bailey Breen on a block and just kept feeding her until Lake Region proved they could stop it. In the first half, Oceanside made one shot from further than five feet.
The Lakers adjusted in the second half, but the damage was already done. Oceanside won 53-37 to set up a rematch of last year’s Regional Final. Breen had 26 points and six rebounds.
Up in Augusta, the Richmond girls raced out to an 18-3 lead over Poland before coasting to victory. Izzy Stewart had 19 to lead the way…the Hall-Dale girls started slowly, but still had a double-digit lead by the middle of the second quarter. Torie Tibbetts led the way with 14…The Madison girls used a 12-2 run to pull away from No. 12 Monmouth….And the NYA girls held No. 8 Carrabec to 19 points as they advanced.
Things weren’t much better in Bangor.
The Calais boys scored 25 straight to take care of Piscataquis…The Dexter girls were up 23-1 at halftime…Mattanawcook’s Addison Cyr dropped 28 on Machias in a blowout.
There was, however, a lone bright spot. #5 Hodgdon pulled off a slight upset of #4 Machias.
Back in Portland for Part II of MidCoast Maine Day at the Portland Expo (5 of the 8 teams in the B South semis are from Lincoln Academy, Medomak Valley, and Oceanside.
The Expo was packed.
The final game was between Medomak Valley and Oceanside boys.
Always an event.
Just like they did in the regular season, the Panthers tried to slow Oceanside down and after a quarter it was 8-4. Eight to four. Oceanside shot 15 percent in the quarter and Medomak had six turnovers.
Just the game everyone expected from the No. 1 and No. 11 offenses in the state.
At the half, it was 22-11. Oceanside shot 25 percent from the floor and Medomak shot 17 percent.
It was kind of a rough watch.
The offenses finally got going in the 4th quarter, as each team scored 16.
Medomak held Oceanside to a season low 46 points and Carter Galley did not make a field goal, but Cohen Galley had 17. Gabe Lash had 13 for Medomak.
Oceanside advances to play Lincoln Academy.
