Being a top-ranked team can bring a lot of attention, and that attention can bring a lot of pressure. Some teams understandably shrink from the pressure, or try to minimize it.
The Mattanawcook Academy boys from Lincoln are embracing it.
“Pressure is a privilege. It’s earned by people,” head coach Adam Mahaney said last weekend after his team won the Class C North boys regional championship. “These kids have earned that right to feel some pressure. We tell them, when the pressure is on, that’s when we’re going to find out what we’re made of.”
And they’ve been finding out so far in this year’s high school basketball tournament. The now 21-0 Lynx are returning to the state championship this weekend for the first time in roughly 70 years. To get there, they had to fight to keep their record perfect and their state championship hopes alive.
Their tournament pursuit of perfection got off to a rocky start at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, with a spirited Mt. View team from Thorndike jumping out to a 12-2 lead at the start of their quarterfinal game last Tuesday.
Gutsy play from sophomore guard Kooper McCarthy helped keep the game in reach for the Lynx and get his teammates back on track.
“Because once I get going, that kind of gets the whole team going with energy,” McCarthy said after the game against Mt. View, which Mattanawcook won 51-46.
In the next round, Fort Kent jumped out to a 9-2 lead against the Mattanawcook before the top seed was able to settle down and take control of the game. The Lynx eventually cruised to a 32-point victory.
And while they finally had their own big 10-0 run to start their third game of the tournament, this time against Madawaska, the Lynx struggled to put the Owls away for much of the second half. That was largely because Madawaska eighth-grader Quinn Pelletier absolutely went off in the second half, finishing the game with a whopping 43 points.
In the face of that onslaught, Mattanawcook stood firm. Mahaney explained after the game how his team leaned on big 3-pointers from sophomore forward Carter Milner and junior forward Andrew Oliver, senior leadership from James Trott, big minutes from sophomore guard Isaac Ritchie, and a continued boost from McCarthy.
“These kids responded to the pressure, and every time we’ve been hit with the adversity or the pressure, they’ve kept their composure and just grown from it,” Mahaney said after that 81-71 regional championship win.
Asked about the idea of pressure being a privilege, sophomore forward True Weatherbee highlighted how far the team has come this year.
“To begin the season, we weren’t on anyone’s radar,” said Weatherbee, noting that last year’s team was knocked out early in the playoffs during the preliminary round. “So earning that pressure, earning the one seed, it feels amazing.”
The last team from Lincoln to make it to the state finals was the 1955-56 group. McCarthy was asked about that history earlier in the tournament, and whether the current team thinks about it or is more focused on one game at a time. The standout guard said the Lynx were focused on the regionals first, but that wasn’t their ultimate goal.
“Obviosuly the end goal is the state game, trying to get a gold ball in the trophy case,” McCarthy said after the semifinal win over Fort Kent.
To bring home that gold ball, the Lynx will need to go through the 17-1 Mt. Abram Roadrunners of Salem Township, winners of the Class C South regional. The Class C boys state championship game starts at 8:45 p.m. on Saturday at the Cross Center in Bangor.