A Tie?

Thursday night I figured it was safe to go to bed early and catch up on some much-needed sleep. Everyone had moved their games to Friday because of the snow. I didn't need to write a newsletter. I didn't need to hunt down scores. So I took a sleep aid around 7:30 and almost immediately came the message:

"Hey, did you see this tie in D North?"
"I'm sorry, what?"

The Washburn boys beat the Wisdom 46-27 to force a tie--a real, actual tie. And not like the phantom tie we had in Volleyball this fall.

When A Tie Isn’t a Tie

A tie is a tie unless the MPA is playing by 1985 rules.

Maine Basketball RankingsLucas McNelly

This was a pure tie. Washburn and Wisdom beat the same teams and then beat each other--clean and simple--and they'll play today for the 11 seed and the right to play Jonesport-Beals. That's a 3 hour and 53 minute drive for Washburn and a 4 hour and 36 minute drive for Wisdom. That's a lot of driving for a prelim.

Then I crashed and the other game went double-overtime. So it goes.

On Friday, we wrapped up the regular season.

Down in South Berwick, Theo Pow scored his 1,000th point on a free throw in Kennebunk's win over Marshwood. We'll get back to him.

Pow finished with 23 as Kennebunk finished 12-6.

Brewer's Allie Flagg saw a free throw and thought he could top that.

She scored her 1,000th point with panache.

Flagg is only the second Brewer girls basketball player to reach the 1,000 point milestone and the first in 45 years!!!

Not to be left out, TA's Wyatt Benoit also hit the 1K mark. He had 32 on the night.

And Spruce Mountain's Jace Bessey broke the combined Jay/Livermore Falls/Spruce Mountain scoring record.

Down south, SoPo coach Kevin Millington hit a coaching milestone.

Manny Hidalgo led the way with 22.

Elsewhere

Gabe Lash's 15 & 11 led Medomak Valley to a perfect regular season...Diing Maiwen's 21 led Edward Little to a win over Lewiston...Davis Mann dropped 36 on Scarborough...Brady Peacock had 23 in Gardiner's win over Cony...Colin Schlobohm had 20 to give Leavitt a home prelim...Gabe Damon beat the buzzer in OT to give Oxford Hills a win over Westbrook...Cape's Eli Smith hit 7 3's and scored 27 but it wasn't enough to beat Poland and Lucas Verrill's 22...Harry Louis' 23 led Valley over Rangeley...Brody Willette had 18 in Winslow's win over Belfast...Robert Wolf had 16 in Yarmouth's overtime win over Wells...Rose Tohanczyn's 15 helped Camden rally to beat Medomak. The Panthers got 22 from Kytana Williamson...Rachel Penny had 21 in Edward Little's win over Lewiston...Kendall Therrien had 18 in Kennebunk's win over Marshwood...Julianna Allen's 16 & 11 led Mt. Ararat over Brunswick...Ella Pelletier dropped 35 on Westbrook...Helena Bukarac's 5 triples led to 19 points as Scarborough beat Falmouth...Freshman JuJu Farrington had 20 in St. Dom's win over Waynflete.

The Gold Ball Odds are up, assuming no errors and we've got some candidates for Region of Death. C North girls is the usual pick, but you could make a case for B South girls, and also it might be D North girls? Does anyone really think Southern Aroostook is completely out of it?

You can check out the odds for your team at the link below:

Gold Ball Odds

What are your team’s chances of winning it all?

Maine Basketball RankingsLucas McNelly

As we end the regular season, here's the Wins Draft standings. I've got a pretty good lead, but it's not over. We get 1 point for each regular season win, 1 point for making it to the quarterfinals, and then it escalates for each round. So it's not over yet.

In the Hoops 8 Tourney preview (which is awesome), Travis Lee revealed the Mr. Basketball semifinalists.

That list is:

Leo McNabb
Diing Maiwen
Theo Pow
Gabe Lash
Jamier Rose
Manny Hidalgo
Emmit Byther
Jace Bessey
Creighty Dickson
Wyatt Benoit

If you read this newsletter on a regular basis, you already know the schools.

And Miss Basketball

Ella Pelletier
Avery Bessey
Madelynn Deprey
Julia Reed
Lexi Morin
Lily Oliver
Isabella Morelli
Kytana Williamson
Aubri Hoose
Abby Morrill

There's been the usual discussion of who was robbed and the whole "southern Maine bias" angle, but this part of the voting is done by the coaches, so if your local candidate didn't make it, that's probably because the local coaches didn't vote for them. But it's kind of hard to take that seriously when a kid from Fort Kent makes the list. There's no large conspiracy at play. That (maybe) comes next.

Steve Craig from the Press Herald had a really nice, comprehensive story on the rash of bad behavior that's running rampant around the state. There's incidents in here I'd forgotten about and some I hadn't heard about and when you see them all together, the full scope of the problem is staggering.

Fights. Ejections. Irate fans. What’s going on in Maine sports?

High school athletics programs are seeing more disruptions from poor spectator behavior that officials say is tied to pent-up anger and a selfish lack of control.

Press HeraldSteve CraigPortland Press Herald

Which is part of the reason why ref numbers are down.

Well, they're trying to reverse that trend and if you're a woman who's thought about potentially reffing, they're actively looking for you.

Maine hopes to recruit more female basketball officials

The high school basketball tournament is almost here and once again, there is a need for more officials in Maine, especially female officials.

WGMEDave Eid, WGME

There's only one game on the schedule, a tie-breaker for the 11 seed in D North.

WHOU will be there with a livestream, because they're awesome.

And then, TOURNEY TIME!!!!