One Hundred and One Points

The Game of the Day was a complete bust–a PPD–so hopefully you didn't make the drive.

And Monday's schedule was a light one, so this will be quick.

Let's start at Hodgdon.

The Facebook comments are big mad, as is their custom.

But this isn't a surprise. The line was 24.3, which is on the high end of what it'll even give. For example, the biggest line I could generate against Van Buren was 31.0 against Windham. That's by design not an accurate line because a long time ago I set it up to discourage teams from running up the score, whatever minuscule impact it might have.

The matchup stats prior to tip were stark.

Hodgdon entered the game as the third highest scoring team in the state, playing the team with the 8th most porous defense in the state. And on the other side of the court, you have the 3rd lowest scoring team in the state trying to score on the 8th best scoring defense.

What did you think was going to happen?

As usual, people are super mad about this online. What a travesty of sportsmanship! Did they watch the game? Of course not. They never do. It's easier to spout off on Facebook. We saw this last year in the Oceanside/Belfast game, a blowout everyone had an opinion about and no one watched. Not the people making up stuff about it on the 'gram. Not the people outraged by it. Not the people writing 1,500 words about it. Virtually no one watched it. But everyone had an opinion.

That's a bigger issue than the number on the scoreboard, but we're not going to fix society.

You should watch the game. I've got it playing in the background, because I actually watch these things. Hodgdon is up 14-0 and they aren't pressing. They're playing half-court defense and turning that into layups. They're already into their bench. They're just bigger, faster, and stronger than Van Buren.

If you want to get this sort of thing out of basketball, the answer isn't to have a mercy rule or ask the better team to burn clock or pass 10 times before they shoot or let the other team score like in those viral videos where the manager with special needs comes in to score a basket. The answer is to come up with better scheduling, so these teams don't play each other.

I wrote about this last year for the BDN.

This isn't going away. We'll probably have another one this week.

Maybe it's the 100 points that makes people angry. Last night, the Easton girls beat Washburn 29-2. Is that better? I know which one I'd rather watch.

I'll close with this Facebook comment from the parent of a kid on the wrong side of a different blowout tonight.

Preach.

In a less controversial result, Edward Little's Rachel Penny got HOT from deep. She went 9/16 from beyond the arc, good for 27 points to go with 11 boards, 8 dimes, and 3 steals in a blowout of Lewiston.

Elsewhere:

Richmond's Zander Steele (what a name) was on triple-double watch, finishing with 12 points, 13 rebounds, and 8 steals in a win over Buckfield...Carrabec closed with a 20-0 4th quarter to shut the door on Pine Tree...Fisher Tewksbury's 22 & 11, Harry Louis' 22, and Hunter Mills' 13 & 16 led Valley's win over Telstar...Maddie Grimaldi had 22 and Avery Bessey added 18 for Spruce as they beat Maranacook, who got 20 & 13 from Celia Bergdahl...The Valley girls put up 36 in the first quarter against Telstar. Madeline Hill led the way with 17...Kylee Savage had 17 in Winthrop's win over Lisbon.

You know I love a great buzzer-beater.

The Patriots got their man, to the surprise of no one.

And people are pumped.

You don't need a fancy spreadsheet to tell you to circle this one.

As you know, Windham is the defending AA champ and looking pretty good in their title defense. They're 10-1 and 5th in the state in scoring. Coming off their first loss to SoPo, they've had a couple of close games.

They'll visit a Falmouth team coming off a huge win over Noble. The Navigators are 9-2 and are very likely locked in to the 2 seed in A South.

This should be a really good game.

I'm toying with the idea of making the drive.

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