Midcoast Maine Day at the Expo

If your a fan of back-and-forth basketball games where whoever holds the ball last is likely to win, yesterday 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 1, it was 13-4 Spruce.

Avery Bessey was the hero in this one. She hit 2 3s in the 2nd 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 2nd 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 5 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 3 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 1 shot from further than 5 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 6 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 #12 Monmouth....And the NYA girls held #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 of a slight upset of #4 Machias. Sam Canfield has the story.

Hodgdon boys defeat Machias in C North quarterfinal

The No. 5 Hawks will play the winner of No. 1 Calais and No. 8 Piscataquis on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 3:30 p.m.

Bangor Daily NewsSam Canfield

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.

Lincoln Academy went back and forth in the first half like two heavyweights. York led for most of the first half until a Gabe Hagar 3 gave Lincoln Academy the lead.

Just a quick note that, yes, I know I accidentally wrote Gabe Lash instead of Gabe Hagar in yesterday's newsletter. I got a LOT of emails.

The Eagles finished with a 6-0 run to take a 25-22 lead into the half. And if you want to talk about an evenly matched half:

FG%
Lincoln Academy 40.0%
York 40.9%

Turnovers
Lincoln Academy 6
York 7

REB
Lincoln Academy 15
York 13

Lincoln had opened the half with a 6-0 run when Lukas Bouchard fouled Tucker Stiles and then got a tech for throwing the ball at Stiles. You can see it on Travis Lee's Hoops 8 highlights (spoilers of the last game):

That's an obvious tech. It was also Bouchard's 4th foul. Lincoln hit all 4 free throws and Casey Duncan (who has been fantastic filling in for starting center Tyson Ball) scored to make it a 6 point possession and that was pretty much it. The full run was 21-0.

Gabe Hagar led the way with 14 points and 8 rebounds and Lucas Houghton had a 12 & 10 double-double.

I've seen Lincoln Academy something like 7 times this year and I swear they've been better in every single game. They're legit. I believe there's still room on the bandwagon.

The final game was Medomak Valley and Oceanside.

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% in the quarter and Medomak had 6 turnovers.

Just the game everyone expected from the #1 and #11 offenses in the state.

At the half, it was 22-11. Oceanside shot 25% from the floor and Medomak shot 17%.

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.

You can add KD to the Cooper Flagg Fan Club.

We're back in B North.

This is pretty simple. It's Chance Mercier vs. the defending champs.

Let's look at the Gold Ball Odds for B North.

You can't get much closer than that.

These two teams split the season series. The winner of the rubber match will advance to the regional final.

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