Flagg Day

In the Game of the Day, Southern Aroostook built an early lead and held on to knock off Hodgdon, 65-53. Cami Shields had 24 for the Warriors. Anna Oliver had 20 in the loss.

The win gives Southern Aroostook a commanding lead in D North.

Hodgdon misses an opportunity to elevate above the pack in C North.

The Evans Sterling bandwagon is starting to fill up.

He's been in the newsletter pretty much every game this year with a nice stat line, so if you're reading this, you're probably already on the bandwagon, but if not, get your seats while you can.

Elsewhere...

The Gorham girls had a 28-3 run to put away Massabesic...Nate Oney had 26 as NYA beat Poland by 1...Robert Conover's 26 wasn't enough as Islesboro fell to Buckfield...Lily Oliver had 30 points, 7 rebounds, and 9 steals for Fort Kent...

Man, what an event last night in Portland!

First we had the Cony/Nokomis game.

Both teams brought their home whites--awkward--so Cony cut the sleeves off their warmup shirts (since they had numbers on them) and played in those.

Parker Sergent was awesome in the second half for Cony. He finished with 25 as Cony got a big win.

How big?

Cony entered the game in last place with a 14.6% chance of making the tourney. After beating Nokomis, the Rams' odds are up to 48.2%. That's a huge swing.

They're currently sitting in the 8 spot in the Heal Points.

On to the big events.

Just watching the WHOU feed on the NBA App, no big deal.

We all know the story here (most of you were there), so I won't rehash it. Plus, Greg Levinsky did it better anyway.

Back at home, basketball phenom Cooper Flagg and his twin bask in the adulation at the ‘Maine Event’ - The Boston Globe

The consensus top-ranked high school basketball player in the Class of 2024 and Duke commit, Flagg and his twin brother, Ace, played in their native Maine for the first time in nearly two years.

The Boston GlobeGreg Levinsky Globe Correspondent,Updated January 5, 2024, 8:18 p.m.

But, that is one hell of a stat line against a very good opponent.

Ace Flagg also had a pretty good night, putting up 6 points and 5 boards.

A lot of the talk will be about Cooper and Ace, who were fantastic last night, but I want to talk a moment to highlight how our other local talent did.

I can imagine the MADE Hoops people were probably wary of letting locals handle the broadcast. There are some extremely mediocre broadcasts at the college level, so an outlet that specializes in high school sports? In Maine? I'd be hesitant.

The entire WHOU crew did a fantastic job last night (shout out to Steve Carmichael, Jarod Richmond, and Ethan Snow). We're very lucky to have them. But the MVP was Rob Kennedy, who sounded like someone who had been calling games at this level for years. And not just in "the call", but Rob had clearly done a TON of homework. It was impressive.

I haven't watched a lot of Rob's high school basketball broadcasts because a lot of times, I'm in the building (or in the other building) and I knew he'd be good, but I didn't expect him to be this good.

It's a busy schedule today, as most of southern Maine took last night off and there's a number of good matchups around the state, but we're heading for a doubleheader between Scarborough and Gorham.

Scarborough and Gorham current occupy the top 2 spots in AA South--a region where all 8 teams make the tourney. But it's looking like there's only 5 playoff-caliber teams in the region this year, so it's important to stay in the top 3 to avoid a tougher quarterfinal.

Gorham's won 3 in a row, including a tight one over TA, but if opponents in common is your thing, Scarborough just beat them by 19 on the road.

Should be a good one.

The rest of today's games are after the jump.