Sportsmanship

In the Game of the Day, with Jamier Rose and Chris Simonds both in foul trouble, Noble fell behind by 14. They rallied, but two attempts from 3 in the final seconds didn't fall and Falmouth held on to the win to keep pace with Freeport at the top of A South.

In Portland, Deering raced out to a 23-5 start on Gorham, who was favored by 17. The Rams responded, but Deering held on for the massive upset. Evan Legassey led Deering with 21. Caden Smith had 21 for Gorham.

Camden and Brewer had a great game up in Brewer.

Big night for Maddie Fitzpatrick, as she got her 1,000th point.

I broke out the LIVE stats for a regular season game at Lincoln Academy.

I'll probably keep doing these at regular season games the rest of the way (assuming an internet connection). I do them for the tourney and people seem to enjoy them. What would be awesome would be to have someone at each venue doing them during Tourney Week, but that would require some sort of presenting sponsor. Just throwing that out there!

Elsewhere...

Dylan Capano had 29 & 10 and Silas Nielsen had a triple-double (14/11r/11b) as Sacopee Valley beat Traip...Temple beat Wiscasset. Peyton Reckards had 15 points and 25 boards...Marshall Adams' 23 wasn't enough for Edward Little as they fell to Windham. Blake McPhereson scored 20 points on 6 3s and Creighty Dickson had 16 & 13 for Windham...Medomak Valley raced out to a 24-4 lead against Leavitt. Gabe Lash led the Panthers with 23...NYA's Nate Oney dropped 34 on OOB, but Trot Moody's 25 for the Beach won the day....Wyatt Benoit's 24 wasn't enough for TA...Biddeford used a 23-6 run and held on to beat Portland by 1. Baleria Yugu had 22 for the Bulldogs...Abby Haines had 22 for Central Aroostook...Bella Smith's 20 led Freeport against Lake Region...Arianna Bardeen had 22 and Savannah Lorenz had 14, including the winning free throw with 1.3 seconds left as Mount View beat MCI...Athena Gee had 22 on 6 3s in NYA's win over OOB...Old Town raced to a 16-0ver MDI...Gorham's Ellie Gay had 24 in the win over Scarborough...Lauren McNutt-Girouard had 17 of Waynflete's 39 as they beat Poland.

Word came down last night that T.J. Maines was back on the sideline.

Braithwaite was recovering from surgery and should be back on the sideline soon.

Despite Maines' return, Mount Blue wouldn't be denied. Sterling Evans had 32 as they won their 11th straight.

Let's talk more about the Oceanside thing, I guess.

The Bangor Daily News has a summary.

Oceanside boys basketball coach told to make games ‘more contested’ after lopsided wins

Despite Oceanside coach Larry Reed’s efforts to curtail his team’s high scoring, the boys have churned out lopsided victories.

Bangor Daily NewsSam Canfield

And Dave Dyer wrote a really good piece.

Boys’ basketball: High-scoring Oceanside vows to ‘ease off the throttle’ in light of complaints

Coach Larry Reed says the school was contacted by the Maine Principals’ Association after his team defeated winless Belfast by 88 points.

Kennebec Journal and Morning SentinelDave DyerKennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel

I've spent way too much time on this thing that should never have been a story. But it is, because it's easy to run with a rumor and get the clicks. The early reporting was an incredibly irresponsible overstatement of the situation, which put a lot of people in a bad spot, especially the kids in the Oceanside and Belfast programs, who have done nothing wrong.

The later reporting, by journalists, has been fantastic, but the damage had already been done. Having talked to too many people, I'm 99.9% sure of what actually happened and what I will say is that an outlet jumped the gun and blew up everyone's day. That's the issue here. There was a conversation with the MPA about sportsmanship and the expectations involved, sure. And the MPA Handbook allows for a team to be banned from postseason play for sportsmanship reasons, sure. But that's in there in case some team is starting fights in the parking lot. Not because you're getting too many layups. This is the sort of behind-the-scenes stuff that happens on a somewhat regular basis and is usually dealt with quietly.

The media attention has blown it up and created a situation where Oceanside is hesitant to play the style they usually play (because who needs more of this nonsense in their life?). Last night at Morse they got to 96 points and then stalled the rest of the way, prompting the Morse faithful to boo the stall, because if there's a program that understands what it's like to have a dominant offense, it's Morse.

Apparently I am on the MPA payroll AND biased in favor of Oceanside. Fun day!

If we want to take something positive out of this fiasco, it should be that scheduling needs a lot of work. And if you get relegated to Class C, go to Class C.

Lawrence raised $1500 for cancer research.

We're headed to GNG, where the Patriots are 10-1, but sitting in 4th place in the Heal Points. Prior to Falmouth's win last night, they actually projected as the 1 seed 35% of the time. That number will definitely go down when I run it again, but a win over York would be huge for their seeding.

York, on the other hand, is currently third in B South, with a big gap between them and Lincoln Academy at 4. If they want any shot at the 1 seed, this is a must-win, otherwise, they'll be looking at either the 2 or the 3.

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