Paws for the Cause

So let's start at Medomak Valley's Paws for the Cause fundraiser.

This is the 8th year of the fundraiser where Medomak wears alternate pink uniforms and they sell pink t-shirts and generally there's a lot of pink. In yesterday's newsletter, I assumed they were raising money for research, but I've been corrected: they raise money for cancer patients. To quote the message setting me straight:

The money we raise goes directly to patients. We donate the money in gift card form: gas cards, subway, Hannaford, etc. Last year we were able to fill the oil tank of a local school employee who was fighting breast cancer.

We’ve raised $49,000 over the past seven years. It’s pretty special.

That's actually really cool.

In addition to the fundraiser, we were on 1,000 point watch, as Medomak's Kytana Williamson entered the game 15 points from 1,000.

She didn't mess around, getting there with 1:17 left in the 2nd quarter.

She had 17 as Medomak took a 28-20 lead into the locker room.

The second half sort of stayed in the 8 to 13 point margin the rest of the way, as Belfast just couldn't get their offense going. They shot 3/19 from deep for the game and you aren't going to win a lot of games doing that. Medomak did most of their damage from the paint, and a lot of that coming in transition.

Medomak won 48-34. Williamson finished with 25, 8 rebounds, and 5 steals. Chloe Fox added 6 points and 9 boards and Audrey Jackson hauled down 10 rebounds to go with her 5 steals. Belfast got 10 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 blocks from Julianna Sprague.

After the game, I spoke to Williamson.

The Boys game was...less interesting.

It was tied at 2 for the first couple of minutes until an Owen Dostie 3 gave Medomak the lead for good. Trevin Ripley scored off an inbounds play to cut the Medomak lead to 7-5 with 4:00 left in the first and then the Panthers' defense locked in, holding the Lions without a field gold until Jackson Faulkingham banked in a runner with 1:47 left in the 3rd quarter. That's 19 minutes and 13 seconds of game play in which Medomak went on a 45-5 run and had already taken Gabe Lash and Mason Nguyen out of the game. They cruised to a 83-23 win. Lash had 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists to lead 4 Panthers in double figures, including JV call-up Noah Taggert who had 10 points and 5 rebounds in 6 minutes. Belfast was led by Trevin Ripley's 7 & 5.

Speaking of cancer, the refs are raising money to fight cancer.

With a donation, you can get your own pink whistle that you absolutely should not blow from the bleachers when the refs miss a call. WINK.

Up north, Isaiah Ervin became the 5th Houlton boys player to join the 1,000th point club. Ervin's mother "Liz" Nelson had 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds back in the 90's for Houlton.

Check out the milestone bucket on Facebook.

Let's go to Sanford, where the Peter Webb All-Stars are hard at work.

That's Theo Pow with the dunk. He had 26.

Is it me or are there more of these this year? Also: what are we doing?

This is so great.

Down south, Deering rallied to score 6 points in the final 13 seconds to stun Cheverus.

That's Evan Legassey with the game winner, the final 3 of his 20 on the night. Tayshaun Cleveland added 24. Deering scored the final 9 points of the game. Leo McNabb had 22 for the Stags...Billy Birks drilled 5 3's for 23 points as Falmouth handled Greely.

I went on LCTV's High School Hoops show to talk about the midcoast teams.

Elsewhere:

Cape's Eli Smith dropped 31 on Fryeburg...Akol Maiwen's 18 led Edward Little to a win over Mt. Ararat...Erskine's Gavin Fanjoy had 19 as the Eagles closed out Waterville on the road...Tom Maloji had 17 in SoPo's win over Gorham...Cai Dougher's 21 led Spruce to a win over Leavitt...St. Dom's got 19 from Jack Broke and a double-double from Donel Tangilamesu as they easily took care of Boothbay...Jack Downs had 21 in Traip's win over Winthrop...Kylie Lamson's 19 points helped Cheverus handle Deering...Julianna Allen led Mt. Ararat with 19 points in a big win over Edward Little. The Eddies got 23 from Layla Facchiano...Annie Whitmore's 12 points and 10 steals led SoPo over Gorham....Erskine freshman Kinsey Ulmer had a double-double with 15 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 steals against Waterville....Kasen Bua had 22 in PI's win over Bucksport...Jahleel Joseph went for 20 in Central Aroostook's win over Washburn.

If you haven't seen the Valley boys play, you really should get on that (he said, every year since the invention of basketball). They're the 3rd highest scoring team in the state (Caribou, 77.1) and feature 2 1,000-point scorers dating back to last year in Harry Louis and Fisher Tewksbury. I saw them earlier this year at Wiscasset and they were very impressive. Louis sees the floor in an exceptional way.

As for Carrabec, they've got the second best scoring defense (Machias, 33.8), so it's the classic great offense vs. great defense battle.

Valley has the 1 seed locked up in D South, but Carrabec has some work to do to lock down the 2 in C South.

And they could still get the 1 seed! Maybe!

I'm pretty sure this isn't streaming.

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