A SoPo Red Riot

Let's start with the Game of the Day and A South girls.

Behind Mollie Puffer, Sanford built a 5-point lead early in the 4th quarter (Puffer finished with 18) before the champs took over, finishing with a 16-5 run to close out the upstart contenders. Annie Whitmore scored 15 points and locked down Puffer on defense to secure the win.

Drew Bonifant was there.

South Portland girls rally past Sanford in Class A showdown

The Red Riots outscore the Spartans 16-7 in the fourth quarter to win a game between two of the strongest teams in Class A South.

The Portland Press HeraldDrew BonifantStaff Writer

The SoPo win flips the Tourney Odds. Sanford was 55.8% to get the 2 seed, but the loss cuts that in half.

But the bigger game might have been in the boys game, where Darius Johnson went off for 32 points and the Red Riots handed Sanford their first loss of the season, 71-69.

Sanford holds on to the 1 seed.

But the Tourney Odds now have a new favorite to finish with the 1.

The new A South (boys and girls) is super fun.

The Oceanside/Belfast rivalry has taken a couple of weird turns over the last couple of years. There was the infamous blowout and subsequent social media outrage incorrectly fueled by an Instagram account's shoddy attempt at journalism (never retracted or corrected despite being widely debunked, by the way).

Then Belfast won the last two matchups in very similar, contentious finishes with the last one coming on Saturday in overtime. So it seemed like a no-brainer that it'd be a good game. So, of course it wasn't. Alonzo Hoose fueled a 13-2 run to close the first half and Oceanside would cruise from there.

But we did get one of the more unlikely buzzer-beaters I've seen this year.

The english!

Elsewhere

Alice Ferran notched a triple-double with 15 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 steals in Maranacook's win over Boothbay...Bonny Eagle used a 23-0 run to put away Gorham. Max Bouchard had 14...Mt. Ararat's Logan Zoulamis' 24 points wasn't enough to overcome Brunswick's balanced attack...Jackson Coull had 14 in Greely's win over GNG...Evan Oranellas (22) was one of 5 Clippers in double figures as Yarmouth put up 92 on Waynflete...A.J. Moody's 16 & 14 led Windham by Kennebunk...Skowhegan's Bryson Saucier put up 20 on Lewiston...Gavin Fanjoy had 16 in Erskine's win over Waterville...Kaitlyn Frost scored 15 as Monmouth beat Hall-Dale...Gorham's Logan Doughty dropped 27 on Bonny Eagle...Kylie Lamson had 19 against Massabesic...Nolan Ames went off for 34 (with 7 steals) against Brewer. He scored 19 in the 4th quarter to slam the door...Molly Brownell's 15 led Cape past Fryeburg...Abbey Steele's 17 paced GNG past Greely...Natalia Silva scored 23 and Gabby Silva added 21 as Biddeford pulled away from Westbrook late...Wells' Megyn Mertens dropped 23 & 9 on Sacopee Valley...TA's Sienna Eldred had 17 and almost out-scored Portland by herself...Windham got 17 from Mackenzie Delewski and pulled away from Kennebunk in a big third quarter...The Poland girls pitched a 19-0 third quarter to put away Leavitt...Cali LeClair had 18 in Mt. Ararat's win over Brunswick...Jenna Osgood had 18 in Mount Abram's win over Lisbon...Gio Staples and John Cubahiro each had 16 as Westbrook tripled up Biddeford...Carter Blanche's 18 helped Scarborough pull away from Deering in the second half...Silas Nielsen had 9 points and 21 rebounds and Peyton Young had 15 points as Sacopee Valley knocked off Wells...Lucas LeGage had 17 and Ephraim Luseko added 16 in Portland's win over TA...Evan Ballard's 17 helped Noble overcome Marshwood...Kelsie Dunn had 20 in Erskine's win.

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It's worth pointing out that if you (or your dumb friend) is a "the MPA heal points are great!" guy, you should see this:

So the Mattanawcook girls are scheduled to play a double-header against Orono (not happening) and Dexter is scheduled to play a double-header against them, but Mattanawcook only plays them once. Also the Lynx are supposed to play Fort Kent on 1/31, but that game has vanished and that's just the first region I checked.

That's what you get with the free MPA heal points everyone is so desperate to find.

Also: check your schedules!

When last we saw the Hermon boys, a little girl was screaming at them as they shot free throws in a loss to Gardiner.

They might see Gardiner again--it would be in a Regional Final, unless MDI or Cony can thread the needle and get the 1 seed.

Hermon has the BYE locked up, but they could still drop as low as 6.

They'll head to Dover-Foxcroft to take on a team that's kind of in the same position. Much like Hermon, they could get the one, but they're most likely in the 2/3 range. They could also drop to 6 (actually, there's a handful of absolutely worst-case scenarios where they could fall all the way to 7).

We don't have pace numbers, but this is also a contrast in styles. Foxcroft is one of the highest scoring teams in the state at 65.6 ppg. They lead Class C in %Perfect at 79.5% and are second in C in point differential at +249. What's weird, though, is they've played two teams inside the top 40: they beat #8 Caribou by 14, but lost to Hermon by 22 on Opening Night. Those two results don't really mesh. It feels like one of them is an outlier. The question is, which one?

The Model's picks for the rest of today's games are after the jump.