The AA Round-Up: Last Weekend

It's been a little while because I had midterms, was preparing for broadcasts, and also wrote a big feature, but now I'm back. Let's discuss last weekend.

Friday

Boys: Deering 62, Gorham 61

Woah. A 15-5 start for Deering (5-8) gave them a lead they would never relinquish, although Gorham (10-2) made it interesting.

Evan Legassey led the charge for Deering with 21, including 4 made threes in the first half. I was doing color for WHOU.live and his ability to score at will is impressive. Step backs, catch and shoot, dribbling off screens, it doesn't matter.

At the half, Deering had a 26 point lead, 46-22. Gorham roared back in the second half by limiting Deering to 26 points and scoring 39 but it simply wasn't enough.

Despite Ashton Leclerc being cold (5 total points) Caden Smith and Gabe Michaud stepped up big time. They combined for 40.

Griffin Gammon hit a few big free throws and somehow came up with a steal in the back court with less then a minute left, then passed it to Michaud. Michaud swung the ball right back to Gammon, who nailed a corner three to cut Deering's lead to 60-59.

Tayshaun Cleveland added to the lead with 2 free throws on the other end, then Leclerc matched them on the other end. After an inbounds pass was kicked out of bounds by Deering in the back court, Gabe Michaud's final shot rimmed out.

The win moved Deering up to the 3rd seed in AA South, and they've got a 66.3% chance to hold off Sanford and South Portland to secure a home playoff game.

Girls: Oxford Hills 57, Lewiston 52

Ella Pelletier, Gabbie Tibbets, and Maddy Miller combined for 50 of Oxford Hills' (6-5) 57 points in a gritty win over the Blue Devils (8-5) in Lewiston.

Lewiston led at the half but their 16 second half points couldn't hang with the Vikings' 30.

Koral Morin paced Lewiston with 17 points.

The three scored in a multitude of ways. Tibbets poured hers in almost exclusively from range, Miller had 8 buckets inside the arc, and Pelletier hit 5 free throws to go along with her 5 2's and lone three pointer.

Oxford Hills is now up over .500 and into 3rd place in AA North, overtaking Lewiston in the heal point standings.

Girls: Gorham 53, Scarborough 35

A balanced offensive attack led by Ellie Gay's 24 points and a steady defensive effort helped the Rams (9-2) complete the regular season sweep of the Red Storm (8-5).

Gorham had 8 players get in the scoring column, and their 9-to-4 advantage from downtown kept the lead in double digits for the majority of the game.

The stifling Gorham defense is allowing 23.8 PPG in their last 5 contests. They held Caroline Hartley to 13 points and everybody else on Scarborough's side under 10.

The win, worth 18.67 heal points, gave the Rams a boost into first over Scarborough and South Portland who were previously tied for the lead in AA South.

Elsewhere:

Maddie Fitzpatrick scored her 1,000th point in the Stags' win over Thornton Academy... Blake McPherson's 20 points (6 3PM) and Creighty Dickson's 16 point, 13 rebound double-double got Windham back on track vs Edward Little... Marshal Adams poured in 23 in the Red Eddies' loss... Kevin Rugabirwa had 18 in a win over South Portland Saturday... Julissa McBarron submitted a 22 point performance as Sanford moved to 9-2 vs Massabesic... and Scarborough's boys beat TA 53-50 behind Liam Garriepy and Nate Glidden's contributions.