This could have been considered a rebuilding season for the Ellsworth High School boys basketball team.
Four starters — including Bangor Daily News All-Maine third-team honoree Jackson Curtis — were among eight seniors who graduated from the 2019-2020 team. The Eagles went 17-4 and reached the Class B North final before being ousted by Caribou, which went on to win its second straight state championship.
No seniors returned, leaving veteran coach Peter Austin a youthful roster with new faces getting most of the playing time.
Yet the Eagles have re-emerged as a postseason force, capturing the Penobscot Valley Conference Class B pod championship with a 58-50 victory over Orono on Tuesday. That set up Friday’s 7 p.m. final game at PVC Class AA-A champ Brewer for the outright PVC pod crown.
“Early on I didn’t expect too, too much, but after I watched these guys play I realized they were pretty good,” Austin said.
Ellsworth (12-3) has won its last eight games since back-to-back road losses Feb. 11 and 12 at rival Mount Desert Island of Bar Harbor and Brewer.
That streak included handing Class AA Bangor its lone regular-season defeat and “B” pod playoff victories over MDI and Orono before the title-game win over Orono.
Ellsworth’s regular-season loss at MDI came in overtime and marked its only defeat against a Class B foe.
The next night, the Eagles trailed Class A Brewer by four points entering the fourth quarter before the Witches outscored Ellsworth 21-6 to secure a 62-43 victory.
“We want to prove that we’re a better team than we showed the first time we played them, and we want to do that for 32 minutes,” Austin said.
Ellsworth has been led by junior guard Hunter Curtis and freshman forward Chance Mercier.
Curtis, the lone returning starter, has a game that ranges from the low post to the 3-point arc. And with older brother Jackson now a freshman playing baseball at Husson University in Bangor, he is the elder statesman for this year’s squad.
“Hunter does a lot of small things that people don’t notice, but coaches notice the calmness he brings to our team at times when other teams want us to turn the ball over,” Austin said. “He’s really strong with the ball.”
Mercier, part of a highly regarded freshman basketball class at Ellsworth, has made an immediate impact on the varsity squad.
“He’s a very quick jumper and a very good shooter,” Austin said. “He’s got a knack for scoring, he can get up and down the floor and he’s got a really quick first step.
“If we can get up and down the court we’re much better as long as we share the ball. We can get stagnant on offense at times, but if we can get Chance and Hunter some good looks we’re in good shape. Our biggest thing is moving the ball.”
Other starters are junior forward Brody Mercier (Chance’s brother), junior guard Michael Palmer and sophomore forward Eamon MacDonald, whom Austin describes as the team’s most improved player since the season began.
Depth comes largely from junior guards Brett Bragdon and Gage Hardy, sophomore guard Michael Harris and freshman guard Miles Palmer. Another freshman, Kaleb Conners, had been getting minutes but is sidelined by injury.
“I think everybody knows their role a little better than they did the first six or seven games, and for the most part we know what a good shot is,” Austin said.
And in a season when no game or practice was guaranteed due to the pandemic, Austin and his players are grateful for the opportunity to achieve the program’s annual goal — winning their final game.
“We want to be in that last game and we want to win that last game,” he said.
