Marshwood at the Buzzer

The Game of the Day lived up to the billing when Marshwood's Natalie Lathrop called GAME at the buzzer.

Izzy Morelli had 24 for GNG.

The girls A South tournament might be awesome this year.

Saturday I went to the Lake Region/Medomak Valley girls game, for a couple of reasons. It was a 1pm game and I had stuff to do and it was a chance to watch my niece play in the JV game.

Plus, Lake Region came into the game at 4-0, starting a rough stretch of the schedule of #7 Medomak Valley, #3 GNG, #9 Spruce Mountain, and #28 York. Yikes.

I figured it was a good opportunity to get a look at them.

The game itself was kind of ugly.

Medomak led early as Kytana Williamson and Chloe Fox had big first halves and Lake Region lost Bella Smith to a leg injury. At the half, it was Medomak by 15.

Then Smith returned for the second half, Margo Tremblay got hot from the floor and Lake Region cut the lead to 3 with 6 minutes left in the 4th. But then Medomak's defense held them scoreless for the next 5 and a half minutes and the Panthers came away with a 9-point victory. Williamson finished with 19. Fox added 13 & 13. Tremblay had 19 of her own. Bella Smith scored 12 and was +7 in her 20 minutes. Lake was -16 with her on the bench.

We had two 1,000 point scorers on Saturday.

Oxford Hills standout and likely Miss Basketball finalist Ella Pelletier scored 36(!) points in a loss to Lawrence.

Then in Gray, Johnny Patenaude joined Pelletier in the 1K club. He had 37(!!) in the game.

And then, Spruce Mountain's Jace Bessey, who got his 1,000th point earlier this year, did this:

He's not at the Jay/Livermore Falls record yet, which I'm told is John Cornelio with just under 1,400.

Elsewhere:

Landon Economy's 22 led Belfast to their third win of the year...Brady Philbrick hit 7 3's and scored 28 points in Dirigo's win over Sacopee Valley...Diing Maiwen's 15 led Edward Little by Mount Blue...Davis Mann had 24 and Billy Birks 22 to pace Falmouth past Deering...Gardiner rallied down 8 at the half to beat Greely.Trace Moody had 25....Leavitt's Colin Schlobohm was on a slight triple-double watch with 15 points, 8 boards, and 6 assists...Marshwood's Liam Tiernan had 20 to help Marshwood by GNG...Gabe Lash had 20 and Rocco DePatsy added 19 in Medomak's win over Lake Region...Jack Fontaine led Maranacook with 25 against MCI...Brayden Murch had 23 as Oxford Hills beat Lawrence...Nick Jamo's 20 was the difference in Poland's win over Oak Hill...Jaxson Desjardins' 33 wasn't enough for Forest Hills against Telstar, who was led by Connor Deprey's 19...TA's Wyatt Benoit dropped 26 on Biddeford...Waynflete needed all of JJ Carlo's 20 points to squeak by Boothbay in OT...Tyrie James had 19 as Windham beat Portland to stay unbeaten...Brady Plante gave OOB 23, but Winthrop prevailed in OT behind Cole Bard's 18...Reece MacDonald continued his hot start to the season with 34 against Lincoln Academy. They got 17 from Terry Welle...Sarae Devoe led Buckfield with 16 in a win over Islesboro, who got 18 from Alma Bewsher...Greely overcame a 2 point quarter to beat Gardiner in OT...Kendall Therrien went off for 28 & 15 as Kennebunk rolled by Bonny Eagle...Celia Bergdah's 22 & 11 led Maranacook against MCI...Alyvia Theriault's 20 was almost as much as Mountain Valley allowed against Cape...Nokomis got 20 from Raegan King to beat Lewiston, who also got 20 from Bailey Tardif-Mockler...Madeline Wagner's 18 was good enough for Winthrop to beat Corinne Androkitis's 19 for OOB...Piper Catanese's 19 led York by Lincoln Academy...Hodgdon's Ava Ezell had 23 points and Gracie Little added 16 points and a career high 22 rebounds to beat Washburn...Caitlyn McCoy had 16 to lead Leavitt...Erskine got 22 points and 8 boards from Kienna Morse.

I was going to do a podcast to start the week, but with all the Christmas stuff this weekend, I'm just exhausted (tip: don't go to LL Bean on the Sunday before Christmas), so let's just do a quick summary here.

Here's the boys top 10:

Medomak moves to #1 this week on the strength of a big win over Mount View, who isn't the same team from last year, but still 3-3. Noble's right behind them with the 13th toughest schedule thus far. York is off to a great 6-0 start. Mount Abram is kind of a surprise, but the Model really likes that they just beat St. Dom's by 13. Windham slips to 5. Part of that is the fact they've played 4 games. Part of it is the schedule, which hasn't been easy by any means, but it certainly isn't the teeth of their schedule, like Cheverus, who they play on the 27th. Cheverus has a similar problem. Their win over Bangor isn't worth anything, but they have a really nice win over SoPo. Ellsworth, of course, got that huge win over Caribou that's giving them nearly half their points. Falmouth got Halligan to win #600. Their most valuable result, Power Rankings-wise, is the 2-point loss to Noble. Then there's Valley, who have been dominant behind Harry Louis and Fisher Tewksbury.

And the Girls:

Cheverus is no surprise at 1. They got a nice win over SoPo to move up. Then it's the A South teams. Marshwood is the lone unbeaten team. They just beat GNG and already have a win over Mt. Ararat. GNG beat Wells and Brunswick this week, which is obviously worth a lot and only lost to Marshwood by 3. Mt. Ararat beat Freeport. They don't have a countable game this week. Brunswick was #1, but the loss to GNG hurt. They've got Oxford Hills next. Gorham is 5-0, but they've had the 2nd easiest schedule in the Top 15. The easiest? Lawrence. Medomak Valley is a little bit of a surprise here until to see that they beat #21 Mount View and #24 Lake Region. They also don't have a countable game this week, but have Mt. Ararat and Spruce next week. Oxford Hills lost to Lawrence, who is lurking at #15 (it's the Strength of Schedule ranking of 89th). Spruce Mountain won three games this week to move to 4-0. They've got Wells next. And Biddeford is 4-1, but that loss was to Brunswick.

I've watched this like 15 times and I still don't know what to make of it.

I know people who are still making "Jayson Tatum is only 19" jokes, so I very much doubt this is how things will play out.

Speaking of Tatum, is this good?

Oh, and Merry Christmas. Or Happy Whiskey Basketball Day. Whichever you prefer.

The Sanford girls are 2-2 on the season so far, with a win over York and a couple of close losses on the road to Edward Little and South Portland. Despite being 2-2, they're +39, first in AA South in scoring, and the Model thinks they're about a half win better than their record.

They're going to try and get their first road win with a trip to Oxford Hills just before Christmas. Obviously, they'll have to find a way to slow down Ella Pelletier (good luck!).

The Vikings are only +8, but they've played the 3rd hardest schedule in the state so far. It doesn't get easier after this. They've got Brunswick later this week.

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