Stag Sweep

In the Game of the Day, Cheverus used a 15-0 run in the first half to take a lead they didn't give back and banked a huge win over Portland at the Expo.

The win gives them a commanding lead in AA North.

Cheverus has now opened the season by sweeping all four of last year's Regional Finalists and while it's clear all four of those teams aren't at that same level this year, it's impressive nonetheless.

It's also pretty helpful in building a cushion in AA North.

In less of a surprise, the Cheverus girls also moved to 4-0 in a doubleheader sweep at the Expo.

I always say, if the game can't be close, let it be memorable.

We go to the 4th quarter where Medomak Valley is up 17 with 6-ish minutes to play.

I was at this game, so let me provide some context. Mount View was playing HARD and the game was physical on both ends. Nothing bad, just a lot of bodies flying around. And yet, a total of 1 foul was called in the 2nd quarter. No one was giving the refs 5 stars in this one. If you want to make the case that they had lost control of the game, I won't argue with you.

I like to sit behind the table, so I can watch the coaches. Mount View coach Brandon Hurd had just received a technical for, let's say, volunteering to do a performance review. I've seen way worse said to those officials in that gym, but I guess they'd had enough. It was a perfectly reasonable tech, but not an obvious one.

And then this happened (this should embed a clip of the LCTV broadcast of the game, but you can also go to 1:09:00 of this video to get the first technical)

The ejection comes very soon after.

I didn't hear what Noah Hurd said, but I'm guessing it was a magic word, because that tech was a surprise. And then Coach Hurd came out of his chair and it was an automatic ejection.

But I think this was an ejection built in that 2nd quarter. Once that was put in motion, the Rube Goldberg device of it all made it somewhat inevitable.

Kory Donlin finished with 25 points and 14 boards for the Panthers, who are second in B South at 3-1.

Elsewhere...

Maddie Fitzpatrick's 29 & 15 led Cheverus to 4-0...Megyn Mertens put up a 15/15 double-double as Wells swept their back-to-back...The Medomak girls used a 23-5 run to put away Mount View...Mariam Delisle put up 17 points and 10 steals for Lincoln Academy over Lisbon...Noble's Jamier Rose exploded for 45 points but it wasn't enough as Sanford won 88-75...Ashton Leclerc had 35 in Gorham's statement win over Falmouth...Travis Wright's 21 paced Dirigo to 3-0...Camden's Will Duke dropped 27 on Mt. Ararat...Nate Hebert had 33 as GNG coasted past Lake Region...Kade Ippolito had 14 points and 19 boards for Greely...Gabe Hagar scored 25 as Lincoln Academy crushed Lisbon.

Can I just add some praise for the Heal Points standings on this site?

Before the game, someone asked how good Mount View was and I remembered that they were 2-0, but wasn't sure about who they'd played.

Within 10 seconds, I had the answer.

If I was dependent on the MPA's site, I'd still be waiting for the answer.

You're going to want this information a dozen times between now and the start of the tourney. You won't get this at the MPA site or anywhere else. And it's cheaper than NFHS or Varsity Maine, who currently has their Scoreboard behind the paywall. The Scoreboard! Not the long-form journalism, but the scores!

And that's why you should upgrade to the Varsity Plan.

I'm working on adding a feature to the Scoreboard.

It's already the best source for scores around the state by a lot, but I felt like it could be better, so I took my list of home team streams and added it to the scoreboard, like so:

That projector icon will take you to the home team's usual streaming method. It's not a guarantee that the game is streamed, but if you have a modicum of web savvy, you should be able to find the game (expect for those situations where a bigger outlet has it instead or the school just didn't bother to stream it).

Fittingly on a 3-pointer, Carter Galley is the newest member of the 1,000 point club.

Galley finished with 34. He's averaging 38.3 ppg on the year and is 18/33 (54.5%) from 3.

If it seems like we're getting one of these a day, it's because we pretty much are.

Who's next?

There's 27 games at this year's Holiday Hoops Showcase at the Expo.

And the schedule is out for the Capitol City Hoop Classic in Augusta.

This is a nice schedule, but can we please bring back the Christmas tournaments? The MPA could add an exception to the exhibition rule. It wouldn't be hard!

Bangor Christian has a big day of games at the Cross Center today, headlined by a doubleheader with Machias.

We're back in B North as Ellsworth heads north to take on Caribou.

The Eagles are currently 2nd in the region at 3-1, with their only loss coming at home against the defending champs.

Speaking of the champs, there's a little bit of a consensus that B North is Orono's to lose, but I've heard that before (in B North, even) and it rarely turns out that way.

No one knows this better than Caribou, a team almost no one gave a chance in the December of their title-winning season. Could either of these teams knock off Orono come tourney time? Maybe. They're each going to get a good idea of where they stand today.

WHOU will have the stream.

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