Most high school basketball teams are nearing the midpoint of their schedules.
The Calais Blue Devils are just getting started.
Monday night’s 67-55 victory over Washington Academy of East Machias was just the fourth of 17 scheduled games for the Blue Devils, the result of several postponements that will leave the final month of regular-season play full of games but short on practices.
And that’s a good thing, say the players, who already have endured a season’s worth of practices but now face a run of 14 games in 32 days beginning with the victory over WA.
“My dad is a great coach, but he gets a little bit on the edgy side just like the rest of us, so when we have a lot of practices and no games, it’s hard to keep a lot of kids focused,” said senior guard Jordan Leeman, the son of Calais coach Ed Leeman. “It’s good to have a lot of games, and I think we’re ready for them. We just have to concentrate on the defensive end and go from there.”
Jordan Leeman and senior center Cal Shorey, who had 21 points and 16 rebounds as Calais knocked off WA for its 59th straight regular-season victory, are the two primary returning players from last year’s team that won a third consecutive Eastern Maine Class C title.
Adding less-experienced players into the rotation has been one of the primary goals of the early part of the season. The lack of games has slowed that effort, but familiarity both on and off the court has helped abate that concern.
“This is the same group of guys that has been playing together since third grade,” said the 6-foot-4 Shorey, who will continue his playing career at Division III Union College next year. “We’ve played since third- and fourth-grade travel teams. It’s the same group of guys so we know each other really well, we all hang out after practice and we’re real tight.”
Still, game experience can produce revelations. Against a Washington Academy team that entered Monday night’s game at 7-0 and hopeful that a win over the Blue Devils might represent a changing of the guard, Calais got an unanticipated big performance off the bench from 5-9 senior Jeff Johnston, who scored 11 points and grabbed four rebounds.
“He hadn’t played in the last two games,” said coach Leeman, “but the other night he was diving on the floor in practice, so I rewarded him [Monday night], and he paid big, big dividends for us.”
Seniors Sean Cavanaugh and Steven Rogers, juniors Jeremy Carr, Josh Gillespie and Dylan Ramsdell and sophomore Ryan Cavanaugh also are being integrated into the lineup.
“We don’t know who we are yet,” said coach Leeman. “We’re trying to do different things, it just depends on matchups. We just see what we have and what we’re going against. Every game’s a new game, so we’re just trying to figure things out on the fly.
“We don’t have as much talent, but the kids are working hard, and the more of these big games they can play in, the better off we’re going to be.”
Tigers have eyes on the prize
The Fort Fairfield boys basketball team reached the Eastern Maine Class D semifinals a year ago — a feat the Tigers hope is merely a steppingstone to even more success this February.
Coach Todd Alley’s club is off to a 7-0 start, good for the No. 1 seed in the first official Heal point ratings released Tuesday.
Notable victories have come on the road at defending state champion Central Aroostook of Mars Hill, second-ranked Easton and Katahdin of Stacyville, as well as in a 20-point homecourt win over Class C Madawaska.
Crucial to that success has been defense — the Tigers have allowed just 36.6 points per game entering Tuesday night’s rematch against Central Aroostook and have yielded more than 39 points to just one opponent.
“This group, especially the seniors and our junior point guard, has really committed themselves on the defensive end not to give people open looks at the basket,” said Alley, whose team relies primarily on a man-to-man defense.
Tuesday’s game against Central Aroostook marks the start of a testing four-games-in-seven-days stretch that may determine if Fort Fairfield will stay atop the Eastern D rankings.
The Tigers visit Madawaska on Thursday, then host Easton on Saturday before visiting Limestone/Maine School of Science and Mathematics on Monday — with all that followed by a rematch with Katahdin later next week.
Fort Fairfield features a mature nucleus back from last year’s 15-6 club.
Senior forwards Austin Dufour and Matt Cresenzo are the team’s leading scorers, just in double figures, but senior swingman Doug Sharpe and senior forward Andrew Forsman also have contributed offensively, along with junior point guard Josh Booth, sophomore sixth man Travis Noyes and 6-foot-5 junior center John McNamee, whose individual improvement has helped spark the Tigers’ quick start.
“John has really come into his own this year,” said Alley. “Teams have been struggling for an answer if we can get the ball to him.”
And while the immediate schedule is imposing for the Tigers, Alley sees room for considerable improvement before tournament time arrives.
“We put five guys on the floor who all can put the ball in the basket,” he said, “but with the exception of the Central Aroostook game, we really haven’t shot well.”
Still the Tigers are optimistic about how they’ve approached the first half of the season and see continued development as crucial for a program that last claimed an Eastern Maine championship in 1988.
“We tasted Bangor last year, and the boys weren’t satisfied,” said Alley, “so this year they want to see if they can take care of business to get back there again, and then see what they can do.”
Searsport ends drought
The Searsport boys basketball team ended a 32-game losing streak recently with a 63-45 victory over Fort Kent.
The Vikings, who had not won a game since midway through the 2006-07 season, outscored the visiting Warriors 30-12 over the game’s final eight minutes after the teams had battled to a 33-33 stalemate through three quarters.
Dan Peach led first-year coach Brad Cook’s club with 24 points, while Rocky Faunce added 15.
The Vikings are now 1-7 on the season after a 62-48 loss to Dexter on Monday night.
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