Defending Class C state champion Washington Academy of East Machias got off to a painfully slow start this schoolboy basketball season but has bounced back to work its way into the postseason picture.
Coach Steve Pineo’s club lost its first five games but since then has won five of its last six contests — the latest a 74-71 victory over previously unbeaten Calais on Monday that advanced the Raiders to seventh place in the Heal point ratings.
WA graduated virtually its entire nucleus — including All-Maine guard Ben Teer, backcourt mate Noah Von Rotz and star forward Bryce Colbeth — from the 2010 team that won the first boys basketball state championship in school history. But Pineo and the Raiders have retooled fairly quickly, with the team’s most recent defeat, a 47-42 loss at Class B Mount Desert Island on Jan. 10, providing the Raiders an ironic boost of confidence. WA led that contest well into the fourth quarter before the 10-1 Trojans mounted a late rally.
“We kind of ran out of gas at the end,” said Pineo. “But I think the kids realized then that they could play with anybody.”
Senior Romayn Richards has emerged as a primary scorer for the Raiders, scoring a career-high 30 points in a recent win over George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill and following that up with 15 points and five steals in the victory over Calais. Richards began the season as the team’s point guard, but a switch to shooting guard has coincided with his increased offensive output.
“Romayn’s a super kid,” said Pineo, “but he felt a lot of pressure on him at the beginning of the season because he felt he had to fill the shoes of the guys who left us last year. But we’ve brought him along slowly and he’s loosened up. The move from point guard to the wing has really fit his style of play, and he’s been leading us.”
Richards was one of five WA players to score in double figures against Calais, along with junior Drew Sansing with 14 points, sophomore Tyler Varney with 13 and juniors Nick Pineo and Alex Currier with 12 points each — with Currier grabbing an offensive rebound and scoring the go-ahead basket with approximately 40 seconds remaining.
That group, along with senior forward Jordan Porter and 6-3 junior Aaron Huffman, who is sidelined by an injury, has given Washington Academy offensive balance that’s been tough to defend in recent games.
“They’re really a unit,” said Pineo. “We don’t have any superstars, we don’t have any 6-6 kids, they’re just all hardworking Down East kids who are playing well as a team.”
WA returns to action Saturday at Foxcroft Academy, a team that edged the Raiders by two points in their season opener. The Raiders then head to Calais Jan. 25 for a rematch with the Blue Devils.
Undefeated ranks dwindle
Losses by Lee Academy, Mount Desert Island and Calais over the holiday weekend leave just six schoolboy basketball teams statewide with unblemished records.
Four of the surviving unbeatens are from Eastern Maine, two in Class B and two in Class C.
The Class B unbeatens don’t play each other during the regular season but are not unfamiliar foes, as top-ranked Camden Hills of Rockport defeated No. 2 Ellsworth in last year’s regional championship game.
Camden Hills is off to an 11-0 start this season, led by high-scoring senior center Tyler McFarland. Coach Jeff Hart’s club will attempt to keep its winning streak intact with back-to-back home games Thursday and Friday against 6-5 Lincoln Academy of Newcastle and 7-4 Nokomis of Newport, respectively.
Ellsworth (9-0) is coming off its biggest win over the season, a 62-54 win over rival MDI before an estimated 1,300 fans at sold-out Parady Gymnasium in Bar Harbor on Friday night. Coach Peter Austin’s Eagles used an 18-5 third-quarter run to extend what had been just a one-point halftime lead, with Andrew Austin scoring 18 points and Jordan Carter adding 13 to lead the way against an MDI team missing point guard Caleb McDonald due to the flu.
The two Hancock County rivals meet again in their mutual season finale on Feb. 11, at Katsiaficas Gymnasium in Ellsworth.
The two other Eastern Maine unbeatens, both in Class D, have yet to play this season, but soon will square off twice within a nine-day span.
Top-ranked Central Aroostook of Mars Hill improved its record to 11-0 Monday with a convincing 80-44 victory over Madawaska, which is 8-3 and ranked eighth in Eastern C. Coach Tim Brewer’s Panthers have featured both depth and talent in their fast start, as evidenced in their most recent win when Brendan York, Mike McClung, Logan McLaughlin, Caleb Kelly and Dan Brewer all scored in double figures.
One team CAHS has yet to face is 8-0 Washburn, which features the 1-2 punch of sophomore guard Mitchell Worcester and junior guard Jordan McLaughlin. But the Beavers and the Panthers will meet twice during the final three weeks of the season, on Jan. 29 at Mars Hill and on Feb. 7 at Washburn.
Two Western Maine teams, defending Class A state champion Cheverus of Portland (9-0) and Class B power Mountain Valley of Rumford (11-0), also entered Tuesday’s play undefeated.
Wiscasset drops ‘Redskins’
The Regional School Unit 12 board of directors voted at its most recent meeting to drop “Redskins” as the name of Wiscasset High School sports teams.
According to the Times Record of Brunswick, the board voted 9-6 last Thursday to remove the name “permanently and immediately,” ending the work of a task force that previously had been created to address the issue.
Members of the school’s student body subsequently staged a brief walkout the next morning in opposition to the board’s vote.
RSU 12 was approached last fall by members of the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission, who said the nickname was offensive and requested it be dropped.
Wiscasset joins such other Maine educational institutions as Scarborough and Old Town high schools and Husson University of Bangor that have dropped Indian-related team names in recent years.
