BANGOR, Maine — Four tourney basketball semifinal games are set to be televised by Bangor’s ABC and FOX 22 on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons while the Friday afternoon schedule will be determined after the outcomes of some Wednesday contests, according to Mike Palmer, the company’s vice president and general manager.
Two girls semifinals will be shown on Wednesday with the Hermon vs. Presque Isle Class B North game on ABC 7 at 2:05 p.m. and the Hampden vs. Lawrence Class A North game on FOX 22 at 5:30 p.m.
Two more semifinals will be shown on Friday afternoon.
On Thursday, ABC 7 will televise the Shead vs. Washburn Class D North girls game at 2 p.m. and FOX 22 will show the Searsport vs. Madison Class C South game on FOX 22 at 4 p.m.
ABC 7 worked out the deal to do the games with the Northeast Sports Network of Vermont, which will be live-streaming the games online, and with the Maine Principals’ Association, the governing body for the state’s high school sports.
“We want to put on the local stuff you can’t find on ESPN or CNN,” Palmer said. “Original local programming is where the action is.”
For the past 36 years, tourney games were televised by the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, but it announced in November 2015 it didn’t have the resources for coverage of the 2016 tourney with the addition of a fifth class to high school basketball.
MPBN later announced it would televise and stream the 10 state championship basketball games, and then the Maine Principals’ Association agreed to a one-year deal with the Northeast Sports Network to stream the tourney’s regional semifinal and finals at all three sites in Bangor, Augusta and Portland.
The National Federation of State High School Associations Network, which is based in Atlanta, is live-streaming the quarterfinals in both regions (North and South) for the third straight year.
The quarterfinals can be watched at nfhsnetwork.com, the semifinals and finals can be watched at nsnsports.net/ and the MPBN website is mpbn.net.
