This story was originally published in contributor Lucas McNelly’s Maine Basketball Rankings’ newsletter. To receive his newsletter directly in your inbox, subscribe here.
After the Saturday regional finals, I kind of just drove home and promptly slept for 13 hours. Such is the post-regional collapse.
Let’s do a quick thing on the AA regional finals.
The Oxford Hills girls entered the tournament as the No. 1 overall team in the power rankings, but if you had taken away the seeds, you’d think Cheverus was the better team. They held Oxford Hills to 28 percent from the floor and 19 percent from three and controlled a game that wasn’t really as close as the score indicated. Kylie Lamson led Cheverus with 16. Ella Pelletier had 17. And Cheverus kept their title defense alive by winning ugly in a game with 47 turnovers and a Misery Rating of 69.
In the other regional, South Portland came out hot. Annie Whitmore hit a 3-pointer from the wing. Then Caleigh Corcoran hit a three from the wing. Then Mya Lawrence hit a three from the wing. Then Whitmore hit another three from the wing. And another. Lawrence hit another. At one point in this game they were shooting 70 percent from deep.
South Portland finished 8/13 from distance (62 percent) and coasted to a win. Whitmore led the way with 18 and 6 assists.
With Oxford Hills losing, the presumptive Mr. Basketball (Jamier Rose) and the presumptive Miss Basketball (Ella Pelletier) both missed the state game, which last happened in the Davies/Gruber year.
But it also means that the No. 1 team in the boys and girls power rankings entering the playoffs lost before the state game, which is a first.
I picked four of these correctly. For Mr. Basketball, I had Rose, Gabe Lash and Leo McNabb. For Miss Basketball, I had Pelletier, Madelynn Deprey and take your pick from five different people. One was Lexi Morin, but I won’t count that. Morin, by the way, is the first Brunswick girl to be named a finalist. Rose is probably the first finalist from Noble (I should have looked that up). Deprey is believed to be the first finalist for the Caribou girls. And the other schools have all had a winner before (Oxford Hills: Julia Colby, 2020), (TA: Will Davies, 2023), (Medomak Valley: Josh Nash, 1995).
They’ll announce the winners at the banquet during McDonald’s weekend.
The defending champs from Windham have had a solid title defense so far this year, minus a hiccup mid-season that I incorrectly attributed to a Creighty Dickson injury (it was a Tyrie James injury, which would also be a lot to overcome).
Windham used a run in the second quarter to take the lead, highlighted by a three at the buzzer by AJ Moody. They stretched the lead out to 10 in the third before Edward Little used a little razzle-dazzle to stage a comeback.
They actually did this twice. It was awesome.
Edward Little got it down to four points late, which is when Windham usually closes things out at the line. Only this time, not so much. In a stretch where Windham went two from eight from the line, Edward Little was only able to take one point of the Eagles’ lead. Windham held on behind 16 points from Colin Janvrin off the bench. The Maiwens combined for 33 points.
In the finale, South Portland used a 25-6 run to put away a feisty Bonny Eagle team and then took the air out of the ball, to bleed away the 4th quarter. Manny Hidalgo had 22 points for SoPo.
In Augusta:
The Valley girls blew out St. Dom’s behind 18 & 9 from Liana Hartwell and 16 & 11 from Rylee Clark. The St. Dom’s boys returned the favor, blowing out the Valley boys and holding Harry Louis scoreless. Jonathan Tangilamesu led St. Dom’s with 13 points, 13 boards, and 2 steals. The Hall-Dale girls held Madison to 19 percent from the floor and got a double-double from Sierra Gibbons. Mount Abram eliminated the defending champs behind 28 & 8 from Bryce Wilcox and 20 from Killian Pillsbury. Bingham Abbott had 23 & 11 in the losing effort.
In Bangor:
The Central Aroostook girls closed on a 14-4 run to stun Schenck. Lilly Burtt led the way with 12 & 7. The Schenck boys used a big third quarter to put away Katahdin. Owen Wyman had 16.
Scoreboard watching in Portland, I kept looking at the Mattanawcook/Penobscot Valley score and doing a double-take. The Howlers have been absolutely dominant during the tournament — they broke the record for threes in a regional tournament in the semis — so to see them losing was a bit of a surprise. To see them down seven was a shock. But they figured it out, holding the Lynx to eight points in each of the final three quarters to survive and advance. They won by five. And then I looked at the Model’s spread. They were favored by 3. So they even covered. Despite only shooting 3/19 from deep.
You’ve probably heard what happened in the nightcap.
Kooper McCarthy had 28 in the win, but was overshadowed by Pelletier’s 43.
I’m sorry. That’s eighth-grader Quinn Pelletier going off for 43 points (and 10 rebounds) in a regional final.
You can vote for Pelletier for high school athlete of the week, even if he isn’t actually in high school yet.
And as of last night, he’s winning!
Prior to the tourney, Jay Baines joined me to do my annual “Pick a Cinderella” exercise. Turns out it works much better as content with two people instead of one.
The obvious move, then, is for Jay to come back and go over how we did. And since he was mostly in Bangor and I was only in Portland, it was helpful in doubling the perspective/games seen.
We also made predictions for the state games. Enjoy!