The Flop Technical That Wasn't

Let's start in Augusta with the drama you're definitely going to hear about if you haven't already. Rob Kennedy and BL Lippert are your announcers.

So there's a lot here.

First, to lay the backstory. In the third quarter, Mount Abram's Killian Pillsbury was called for a flop and the team was issued a flop warning, which is of course the point of emphasis rule that everyone hates. By rule, any additional flops are a team technical foul.

From the NFHS:

Pillsbury clearly flops again on the play above. Now, normally my rule of thumb in plays like this is that's the sort of thing you don't call in that situation because it's the ref putting a thumb on the scale in the final 2 minutes of a close game and I hate that. I want something to be egregious to call a tech in a 1-point game in the final 2 minutes

But the ref did call it. Clearly. And then just...didn't.

If you want to swallow your whistle in the final 2 minutes, great. I approve. But if you're going to make a call, actually follow through on the call. This is exactly the fuel of the fire of the unruly fans that have been the scourge of our season. People are going to get mad at anything, it seems, but if you essentially call a technical foul and then don't enforce it, people are going to get VERY angry

Then partly because he's getting up off the ground, Pillsbury is able to get behind the defense for the bucket that would end up being the game winner.

Hall-Dale has every reason to be livid. If it was just the flop, ok, but for the flop to indirectly lead to the game-winning bucket? Oh man. That's brutal.

Of course, there's a minute left in the game and the Bulldogs had chances to re-take the lead and couldn't do it and I know there's people who think that excuses a botched call, but it doesn't. This isn't the first quarter. The way the final 2 minutes of a game play out are very much dictated by time and score.

If we expect 17 year old kids to understand time and score, we should expect actual adults to be able to handle it.

After a chaotic Wednesday, the girls side of the brackets was pretty quiet.

In Augusta, the St. Dom's girls opened up a 19-6 lead after 1 and did enough to hang on and eliminate Forest Hills in a 3 over 2 upset (although the Model had St. Dom's by 0.027).

St. Dom’s girls basketball starts strong, ousts Forest Hills

The third-seeded Saints start fast and use a strong third quarter to beat the No. 2 Tigers, 54-49.

Lewiston Sun JournalNathan FournierSun Journal

Up in Bangor, Penobscot Valley continued to lay waste to girls C North with an 86-26 win over #5 Calais in which Rylee Moulton set a new tournament record with 9 threes (on 16 attempts) as part of her game-high 34 points.

As you can see in Ben Barr's tweet, they also broke the team record for 3's in a game with 15 and the team record for a regional tournament with 25. And they still have another game to play.

In other action:

Calvin Richardson's 24 led Katahdin past Central Aroostook...Brayden Osborne's 24 helped Schenck eliminate the champs from Bangor Christian...Madeline Hill had 20 as Valley blitzed Pine Tree...Jade Graham's had 17 and Hall-Dale raced out to a 27-4 lead against Winthrop...Jacob Harmon's 17 & 10 paced Monmouth past Madison...Mattanawcook needed all of Megan House's 16 to outlast Dexter...The Madawaska boys kept their dream season alive with a win over Calais. Isaac Beaulieu led the way with 14...Andrew Oliver's 21 was more than enough for Mattanawcook to handle Fort Kent.

In the long, storied history of Class AA, we've only twice had a boys 1 seed lose in the semi-finals. All the rest have made it to at least the Regional Final.

Yesterday, that number doubled.

In the early session, Edward Little opened up a 9-point lead on Cheverus in the second quarter on a Diing Maiwen 3. Cheverus answered with an 8-0 punctuated with a Leo McNabb 3. In the third quarter, Edward Little opened with their own 8-0 run and, again, Cheverus answered, tying the game at 37 on a Shema Rwaganje put-back. Akol Maiwen's steal and dime to Diing Maiwen gave the Eddies the lead back.

Diing Maiwen got out in transition up four, but couldn't finish at the rim, Cheverus raced down the floor, and Leo McNabb hit a clutch 3 with 40 seconds left to cut the lead to 1.

All game, we'd been waiting for the Diing Maiwen highlight reel play and he'd had a couple of opportunities that he hadn't been able to convert. With a minute left, he got out in transition up four, but couldn't finish at the rim, Cheverus raced down the floor to set up Leo McNabb for a clutch 3 to get Cheverus within 1.

And then, with the season on the line, he delivered.

McNabb missed an off-balance 3 on the other end, AJ Lauture was tied up with 0.3 on the clock, which as you know, is the minimum for a catch and shoot. Could Cheverus find McNabb to send the game to overtime?

Nope.

Edward Little pulls off the upset and the first 1 seed bites the dust.

In the later session, the "cellar dwellers" from Bonny Eagle showed up with signs and a chip on their shoulder. They came out motivated, holding TA to 10% from the floor in the first quarter and stretched out to a 23-10 lead late in the second quarter.

It was a steady diet of Bonny Eagle's 2 bigs, 6'8" Brody Taylor and 6'9" Max Bouchard, as the Scots controlled both ends of the floor all night and if you didn't know the seeds, you would assume Bonny Eagle was the 1 seed. It just never felt like TA was going to win the game.

Down the stretch, there wasn't a ton of urgency. Out of a timeout with roughly a minute left, Bonny Eagle drew up a play where Bouchard found Taylor for a layup that TA seemed completely unprepared for to go up 7 and TA seemed resigned to their fate after that, sort of going through the motions of late game situations. More than one person on media row said some version of "what are they doing?"

And then Bonny Eagle ended the game with a punctuation mark (that didn't count).

Brody Taylor finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds.

If you like big guys dominating on the block, this Bonny Eagle shot chart is right up your alley.

The biggest winners here are Windham and South Portland, both of whom handled their business and find themselves as favorites to meet in the Gold Ball Game.

There was a scary situation in Bangor.

Player helped off court by EMTs after collision during Bangor tournament game

The Mattanawcook Academy player dove for a loose ball and collided with a Dexter player, and was down on the court for around 20 minutes.

Bangor Daily NewsMatt Junker, Larry Mahoney

Hopefully she's ok.

There's a lot of good options for Game of the Day. York and Medomak are both 20-0! Messo and Hampden! Oceanside and Biddeford! Can the Camden girls keep the dream alive? Can Mt. Ararat get over the hump against GNG? There's not a bad game on the docket.

But the Game of the Day features two of the best players in the state.

Falmouth's Davis Mann had a monster game in the semifinals against Fryeburg, shooting 68% from the floor en route to 39 points.

They'll take on Noble and the presumptive Mr. Basketball, Jamier Rose.

They split the season series. Noble won by 2 at home. Falmouth won by 3 at home. Who will win on a neutral floor? I'm not sure, but I wouldn't miss it.

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