Maine high school basketball has been the gift that keeps on giving this holiday week.
After a string of close contests and game-winning shots, the Caribou Viking boys added their own late-game heroics on Tuesday night.
Down by double-digits at halftime, the returning Class B state champions found another gear against reigning Class C North champ Mattanawcook Academy. The Vikings chipped away at the Lynx lead and things were all tied up at 76 with 17 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
After the inbounds pass, Caribou senior Owen Corrigan drew a double-team with about five seconds left. That’s when Corrigan found a cutting senior Landen Belanger, who knocked down a fade-away jumper as time expired to give Caribou the comeback victory.
You can watch that game-winning play here courtesy of WHOU.live.
Remarkably, it was Belanger’s only field goal of the game after battling an ankle injury. Caribou head coach Kyle Corrigan believes that Belanger finished the night with three points, including the two biggest of the night at the end.
“Owen was patient, found him, and Landon hit that big shot. So it was exciting,” the Caribou coach told the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday morning. “It was exciting for Landon, too, where he’s kind of played with an injury right now, and he didn’t play a ton yesterday. But he made the game winner.”
It was a gritty effort to close out a game chock-full of impressive individual performances.
Mattanawcook senior Andrew Oliver dropped a whopping 49 points on the night, and Owen Corrigan had 38 of his own. Caribou’s Chandler St. Peter added 21 for the Vikings, including some big baskets down the stretch.
“I thought our guys played with unbelievable composure,” coach Corrigan said about the comeback. “Nobody panicked, nobody rushed, nobody tried to get it all back at once. We did just chip away a little at a time.”
Caribou remained perfect so far this season at 6-0 atop Class C North, and Mattanawcook is not far behind in third after the first loss on the year for the 5-1 Lynx.
The two powerhouse teams will meet again soon on Jan. 3. And don’t be surprised if Oliver has another big performance to follow-up on his offensive onslaught Tuesday night.
“He played phenomenal,” Corrigan said about Oliver. “The kid can shoot it, he can score it.”
Video courtesy of WHOU.live, which provides live broadcast coverage of games and other community events for its subscribers.