Down Goes Gardiner

Let's start with the Game of the Day--the Don Shields Bowl.

Sadly, Don was not there.

Oceanside wore their pink cancer fundraiser uniforms and Gardiner wore their orange road uniforms, which wasn't ideal, especially when the refs would say "red ball". I assumed red meant pink, but apparently red meant orange. Considering both pink and orange have the same RGB value for red (255), they couldn't have picked a worse color, but I digress.

Gardiner led 9-8 after the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Renee Ripley took over. She hit 3 shots from deep in the quarter, two of which were completely blocked by a ref. The third one was only partially blocked. There's very little room at Oceanside.

Oceanside led by 7 at the half.

Ripley was, I thought, the best player in the game, but she picked up her 4th foul late in the third quarter and when Grace Mackie also picked up her 4th foul late in the third, Gardiner had an opening for a comeback. Oceanside gambled and put Ripley back in to start the 4th quarter and it paid off. She managed to stay in the game, despite several close non-calls. Gardiner missed on some opportunities to get the game within 2 possessions and Oceanside held on to hand the Tigers their first loss of the season. Ripley finished with 21. Olivia Breen had a game-high 25.

Drew Bonifant was there.

Oceanside girls basketball deals Gardiner its first loss

Olivia Breen scored 25 points and Renee Ripley added 21 as the Mariners knocked off the Tigers in a matchup of Class B powers.

The Portland Press HeraldDrew BonifantStaff Writer

The Mariners move to first in the Heal Points for B South, but GNG remains a slight favorite for the 1 seed.

Down two to Winthrop with 6 seconds left, Dirigo's Owen Smith called GAME.

The win moves Dirigo to 98% to make the tourney.

Further south, the GNG boys handed Lake Region their second loss.

On the podcast, I referred to Lake Region's schedule as "Patriots-level soft", which isn't an insult. The Pats might go to the Super Bowl (knock on wood)! But in a system like Heal Points where you have to convert points from your schedule and can't rely on W-L record, strength of schedule is important and Lake Region's schedule didn't allow for much margin for error. They just don't have a lot of extra points to play with. With the loss to GNG, Lake's 1 seed odds are essentially gone. They temporarily moved up to 2nd in the Heal Points, but it'll be difficult to stay there. They can still get a top 3 seed, but it's more likely they play in the 4/5 game now. There's still a range of outcomes for them, but it's a lot tighter than it was 12 hours ago. We know the top 5 in B South boys. The order is very much in flux.

As for GNG, their odds of making the tourney tripled, from 20% to nearly 60%. They move up to 9th in the Heal Points, but it's essentially them, Morse, and Cape for the last 2 spots.

The Year of the Freshmen strikes again.

Maranacook freshman Gage Mattson went off for 32 points, Jack Fontaine added 22, and Maranacook gave Lisbon 99 problems in a game where the teams combined to make 24 threes. Maranacook will probably be the 3 seed in C South.

Elsewhere

Jackson Kay's 25 fueled Cony's come-from-behind win over Lawrence...Jack Coutts hit 4 threes en route to 18 points and Erskine used a 21-2 fourth quarter to put Nokomis away...Brady Atwater had 23 and Trace Moody had 21 in Gardiner's win over Oceanside...Carter Corson had 19 points as GNG handed Lake Region their second loss of the year...Forest Hills' Janessa Moffitt went off for 31 against Telstar...Maddie Provost' 25 & 7 paced Lawrence over Cony...Mya Lawrence's 14 for SoPo matched Noble...Wells' Megyn Mertens dropped 27 on NYA...Riley Hall had 19 in Mt. Blue's win over Skowhegan...Cam Pulkkinen dropped 23 on Bangor...Jake Jamo had 18 & 8 in Poland's win over Fryeburg...Cooper Morgan went for 27 and Telstar erased an 11-point deficit to beat Forest Hills in OT...Tobias Naranja had 15 as Fort Kent smoked Houlton...Ethan Walsh scored all 19 of his points in the second half to lead Fort Fairfield to a win in overtime over Katahdin...Maggie Mahan had 20 in Central Aroostook's win over Washburn...Amelia Matwyko scored 17 in Houlton's win over Fort Kent...Polly Cullen's 16 & 11 fueled Katahdin's win against Fort Fairfield.

For the second time, Landon Clark is the Ivy League Rookie of the Week. Clark averaged 15.5 points and 5.5 rebounds a game.

Landon Clark Earns Second Ivy Rookie of the Week Honor - Princeton University Athletics

Freshman Landon Clark of the Princeton University men’s basketball team was named Ivy League Co-Rookie of the Week Monday afternoon. Clark earned the confere…

Princeton University Athletics

File under: Obviously.

You wanna see a loaded region? Can I introduce you to the top 10 teams in B North girls?

Only 9 of these teams are advancing to the postseason, so if the rankings hold, that means a top 50 team in the Power Rankings isn't making at least the play-in game. I used to write a thing every year about the best teams to not make the tourney, which seems to be lost to the archives of a previous version of this website, but Top 50 would be pretty rare. Last year, the highest ranked girls team to miss the tourney was Lake Region at #76 and that checks out. Something like 85 teams make it.

Anyway, Hermon and Ellsworth face off today in a battle of two evenly-matched teams, at least on paper. Ellsworth is slightly better in scoring offense, defense, and point differential against a slightly better schedule. They have the same record Against the Spread. Hermon has a slightly better %Perfect, which means they get a bump from sweeping Old Town and that's why they're 3rd in the Heal Points and Ellsworth is 6th. But, Ellsworth won the first meeting, 60-47, and has a slight edge in the Power Rankings. Add the advantage of being at home and you've got the Eagles as a small favorite over the Hawks.

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