Cape Comes Alive

At this point yesterday, the Yarmouth boys were riding a 9-game winning streak and has aspirations of maybe grabbing the 2 seed. Not bad for a team that started 1-2. With a final game against winless Fryeburg, they needed to take care of business against Cape Elizabeth and it felt like a good bet. They'd already beaten Cape by 9 on the road. And they had to feel even better up 43-33 in the third quarter.

But Cape came alive, closing the game on a 23-9 run to stun Yarmouth and put themselves in position to get a home prelim game (there's work to do still...or at least bullets to dodge).

The loss likely drops Yarmouth into the 4/5 game. They can still get into the 3 seed, but it's wholly outside their control.

Michael Hoffer was there.

Cape boys stun Yarmouth with late surge

YARMOUTH—There’s hasn’t been a ton of attention paid to Cape Elizabeth’s boys’ basketball team this winter. That’s about to change. After the Capers’ went to red-hot Yarmouth Monday night and produced their biggest win to date.

Hoffer's High School SportsMichael Hoffer

With Greely's loss to Lake Region, the Rangers' streak of 33 consecutive tournament appearances will come to an end. If that's not the longest current streak, it's got to be close. What a run.

We nearly know the field for B South.

Lincoln Academy is at 99.7% to get in. I think we can call that one and kudos to a team I very much doubted in the pre-season after all the talent they graduated (and boy did I hear about that in Hannaford!). The final spot will come down to Morse and GNG. Morse has a slight lead, an extra game left, and more total Heal Points left on their schedule, so they're the favorites. GNG basically needs to win and hope for a Morse split.

But that's not all Cape pulled off last night. Their girls completed the sweep with a 37-18 domination of Yarmouth to keep their slim playoff chances alive. They were actually favored in this game by the Model, which seemed strange yesterday, but makes sense now. It also makes sense when you realize Cape has 4 losses by either 1 or 2 points. The Model thinks they're the 8th best team in B South and Yarmouth is 10th. It's not often a team that's 8th in the standings is an underdog to a team that's 14th, but there's a first time for everything.

There's more!

Over in C South boys, we had a tie for first place and a 3-way battle for the top seed. And then Dirigo went ahead and beat Hall-Dale. That, along with Spruce Mountain's win, means the Phoenix have locked up the 1 seed. Hall-Dale will still have the inside track for the 2 seed, as the Bulldogs and Maranacook each have a game left and Hall-Dale's potential win is roughly worth 3 times as much. But that only matters if you win the game.

As for Dirigo, the win locks up a home prelim and puts them in the running for a bye directly to the ACC.

Elsewhere

Aaden Nadeau exploded for 40 in Forest Hills' win over Vinalhaven...Drew Pound had 17 in Freeport's come-from-behind win against GNG...Wyatt Bennett had 20 and Ethan Cunningham added 19 as Mount View rolled over Waterville...York got 17 from Reese MacDonald in a blowout of Traip...Megyn Mertens went off for 34 & 9 as Wells doubled up Fryeburg...Corinne Androkitis scored 20 and OOB hit 13 3's against Sacopee Valley...GNG freshman Bryn Gilmore dropped 26 on Freeport...Kelsey Rancourt's 23 led Forest Hills over North Haven...Josiah Leighton had 18 in Wells' win over Fryeburg...Cai Dougher's 17 led Spruce over Oak Hill...Trot Moody went off for 33 but it wasn't enough to overcome 25 points and 21 rebounds from Silas Nielsen and Sacopee Valley beat OOB...Finn Haynie's 16 led Madison over Mountain Valley...Levi Laverdiere went off for 32 in Monmouth's win over Lisbon...Avery Jordan had 22 in Mattanawcook's win over Sumner...Foxcroft's Lennon McAfee dropped 26 on Orono...Mary Allen had 25 as Bangor Christian finished their 18-0 season against Jonesport Beals.

Yesterday, I made my debut in the Varsity Maine journalistic universe with a bird's eye view of how the Heal Points should shake out over this final week. I hit all the regions that include teams in their coverage area, so apologies to the North.

Think your Maine boys basketball team is in the tourney? Here’s what the data says.

Entering the final week of the regular season, there’s still 72 high school basketball teams out there that have work to do.

The Portland Press Heraldmodify your screen name here

They split it up between boys and girls, because apparently it was too long.

It was pretty long.

Can your Maine girls basketball team make the tourney? Here’s what the data says.

Entering final week of the regular season, there’s still 72 high school basketball teams out there that have work to do.

The Portland Press Heraldmodify your screen name here

There are now 59 teams who don't know if they're in the tourney.

Keep an eye out. There's more to come.

Love this idea. One fewer team in the East that could potentially beat the Celtics in a playoff series.

As projected, the top of A South girls has been loaded with talent. The top 4 is pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Cheverus has been a wagon. 69% of their games have been wins of 20 points or more. They lead class A in scoring defense, are second in point differential, and first in %Perfect (91.45%). They're actually third in the state in %Perfect, which is an insane thing to do in the largest class. If you want to quibble with their strength of schedule, ok, but they don't have to play Cheverus and everyone else does.

They're the favorites to get the 1 seed.

Biddeford is no slouch. The reigning B South champs are second in A South in scoring, defense, and point differential. They're 3rd in %Perfect. Oh, and they still only have 1 senior.

If Cheverus is the team of this season, Biddeford feels like the team of next season. But they could be ahead of schedule. No one's been within 15 points of them since before Christmas.

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