Lions Roar
You might remember back on Opening Night when Maranacook beat Monmouth in a game with 6 technical fouls. Last night, Monmouth got some revenge, winning their 9th straight game and vaulting to 2nd place in C South.
Mike Mandell has a great writeup of what looks like it was a fantastic game.
Jack Fontaine continued his big year for Maranacook, leading all scorers with 26 points and 10 boards. Aiden Oliveira paced Monmouth with 18.
The Belfast boys pulled off an upset, beating Lincoln Academy 50-39 behind 15 points, 12 boards, and 5 assists from Trevin Ripley. I'm running the Tourney Odds as I write this, but it appears this might have punched Belfast's ticket to the play-in, bumping them from the 13 seed to the 9. They're now 97.1% to get at least a prelim (they were 67% before the game), an impressive turnaround for first-year coach Travis Ripley and his assistants.
Considering the program history and how last year played out, this is Coach of the Year territory for Ripley.
Check out your team's updated Tourney Odds.
It didn't take long for Penobscot Valley's Ellie Austin to get her 1,000th point last night against Penquis Valley. Here's the bucket that put her over the top.
And then the Howlers kept going, winning 103-11.
I feel like this comes up every couple of days, but there's not a lot you can do when the talent disparity is so stark. Penobscot Valley is now first in the state in scoring (78.1 ppg), second in scoring defense (21.3 ppg), and first in +/- (+909!!!). To put the +/- number in context, here's the teams that are +450 or better:
- Penobscot Valley +909
- Valley girls +629
- Madawaska boys +503
- Machias boys +491
- Hodgdon boys +480
- Medomak Valley boys +473
- Erskine girls +459
- Katahdin boys +452
- Lawrence girls +450
Elsewhere
Jace Bessey made his last home game a memorable one, going off for 38 points on 7 3's as Spruce cruised...Maren Maxon had 36 points & 10 rebounds in 3 quarters for Wells against Traip...Claire Gaetani dropped 30 on Bapst...Isaiah Ervin dropped 27 on Old Town...Sydney Gelhar scored 15 points to lead Freeport past Lake Region...Ella Giguere's 18 helped NYA beat St. Dom's...Sanford got 20 from Paige Sevigny and 19 & 17 from Mollie Puffer in a win over Kennebunk...Olivia Childs had 20 points as Erskine got back in the win column against Morse...Brendan Shaw scored 20 points and Brunswick rallied down 16 to beat Greely...Pine Tree's Collin Verrill scored 26 points, but it was no match for Buckfield's balanced attack. They were led by Trenton Haskell's 17...Carrabec's Jackson Newton had 19 in a win over Temple...Mogga Yanga's double-double (10 & 10) led Deering to a resounding win over Massabesic...Theo Pow's 18 led Kennebunk to a come-from-behind win over Sanford...Cooper Smith had 22 as Lake Region beat Freeport...Bryce Wilcox's 17 led Mt. Abram to a runaway win over Madison...Poland's Damon Martin juuuust missed a triple-double with 16 points, 10 assists, and 9 rebounds (Check the tape! Maybe there's another rebound in there!) in a win over OOB...Richmond's Leeum Dufresne dropped 28 on Rangeley, out-dueling Sam Morrill's 27...JJ Carlo had 22 in Waynflete's win over Sacopee Valley...Wells got 21 points from Jeremy Therrien and 16 & 9 from Nolan Brown as they beat Traip...Westbrook's John Cubahiro had 20 in a win over Gorham...Braden Rodrigue had 16 as Winslow blew out Waterville...York had 4 players in double figures to move to 16-0.
The saga of the parent getting ejected rolls on, with the video clearing 1.5 million views on Facebook and almost 1,000 comments as I write this, some of which are saying insane stuff like the MPA should shut me down, I should be sued for defamation of character, and I should not allowed around kids. It's been a weird week.
Anyway, the whole situation got so bad the MPA sent out a press release that included the following:
With so much left to learn, our student-athletes look to coaches, parents, and fans as models for appropriate conduct. We must then make clear our expectations for all who attend high school athletic events.
As you would expect, this instantly led people to reconsider some of the choices they've made in life, a real "look in the mirror" moment.
Or not.
Again, the refs in this game were perfectly fine.
Old friend Terry Rozier might have gotten himself into a little bit of trouble.
This doesn't look like a problem that's going to go away. One suggestion I saw was to get rid of under prop bets, which in theory could work but I don't know if anyone has the stones to actually do that. It's easier to punish players
After 3 straight Windham losses, the door is suddenly open for Cheverus to snag the 1 seed in AA North. The Stags are 12-3 and now in position to get the bye to the semifinals.
South Portland is 12-3 and while it looks like they're in a toss-up for the 1 seed, TA is actually in control.
SoPo will need to win out to get the 1. Can they beat a team that beat them by 22 all the way back on December 17th?
Could this be a preview of the Gold Ball game?
The Model's picks for the rest of today's games are after the jump.