Down Goes Machias

We've lost our final unbeaten boys team.

With Kayden Carter out with an injury, Aden Jeffers took over, scoring 22 of his 32 in the second half to lead Fort Kent to a 67-61 win over Machias one day after losing to Presque Isle. Mickey Fitzsimmons had 25 for Machias and left the game with an injury.

Other than ending the dream of 22-0, the loss doesn't impact Machias' seeding. They'll be the 1 in D North. Fort Kent will be either the 2 or the 3 in C North. It's similar to Cony's win over Camden the other day. Fort Kent gets a huge win over an unbeaten team and Machias gets pushed to the limit right before the tourney.

So I'm watching the end of the Woodland/Shead boys game on mute (as I do) while I'm looking for scores. Down 8 with under a minute to go, Shead hits a three and I switch tabs for a minute. When I come back, Evan Monk is shooting free throws all by himself. So now I have to rewind (and turn on the sound).

Here's a clip of the broadcast on YouTube (it should start at 1:55:00)

First of all: I love the Woodland court. It's awesome. I have no notes.

Shead hits a three to cut the lead to 49-44 with 15 seconds left. Obviously Shead needs a steal on the inbounds and if that doesn't work, they have to foul. The defender closest to the ball doesn't seem to realize that and his teammate has to rush over from beyond the 3 point line to give the foul. He wraps the Woodland player up with a perfunctory reach towards the ball. You've seen this play a million times. Only this time, it's called an intentional foul.

I think we can all agree that if you're down 5 without the ball, your odds of winning are slim. Plug it into a calculator and you'll get something like 1.5% to 2%. It's not impossible. You've seen it happen. I've seen it happen. You need some missed free throws, sure. But it's doable. But down 7 without the ball? That's less doable. If you're at all familiar with this newsletter, you know I hate this call. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it. Time and score isn't just for the players. You know what this kid is trying to do.

Someone on the Shead team must have shared my opinion of the call because the officials quickly added a technical foul. So now it's 4 free throws and the ball. Now we're talking Reggie Miller territory.

Woodland hits 3 of the 4 free throws and the game is over. Thankfully, Shead's season won't be impacted by this. They're very likely going to play in the 4/5 game, but there was a scenario where they run the table and get to 3, but that's gone now.

You can't say the refs cost Shead the game, because they very likely lose not matter what, but they 100% ended the game early. But, hey, maybe they needed to run errands after the game.

In the Game of the Day, Mt. Ararat started slowly, but rode a big second half from Julianna Allen to a 54-37 win over Hampden in a rematch of last year's Gold Ball game. Allen finished with 16, 12 of them in the second half. Jaelyn Jensen added a double-double (10 & 11). Hampden got 10 & 7 from Grace LaBree.

With the win, Mt. Ararat picked up enough to vault to first in the Power Rankings.

Power Rankings

This spreadsheet hates your team.

Maine Basketball RankingsLucas McNelly

We get a little more clarity at the top of A North girls. Nothing is settled, but I feel confident Mt. Ararat will be the 1 seed and Bangor will be the 5. Edward Little, Camden, and Hampden all play either Lewiston or Bangor (or both!), so there's Heal Points to be won.

All three are coming off a loss.

Cooper Sullivan was there.

Mt. Ararat girls basketball beats Hampden Academy

Julianna Allen’s second half helps the rematch of last year’s Class A state championship game end in a similar fashion.

The Portland Press HeraldCooper SullivanStaff Writer

Elsewhere

Ian Lawrence went off for 29 points as Yarmouth handled GNG...Nick Jamo had 18 in Poland's win over Cape...Aaden Nadeau channeled his inner Wilt with 38 points, 24 rebounds and 5 blocked shots in Forest Hills' win over Temple...Natalie Lathrop and Renee St. Pierre each had 18 as Marshwood held off Westbrook and punched their ticket to the postseason...Ella Kenney and Abbey Steele each had 16 in GNG's win over Yarmouth...Forest Hills' Janessa Moffitt dropped 25 on Temple...Kaitlyn Frost's 23 led Monmouth to a road win over Mountain Valley...Payton Rose hit 4 threes and Poland put Cape's season on life support...Sanford's Mollie Puffer outscored Portland all by herself, 20-18...Sacopee's Travis Brassard dropped 22 on Telstar...Rocky Axelsen scored 22 points to keep Greely's playoff hopes alive....Landon Belanger's 15 led 5 players in double figures as Caribou rolled over Houlton...Aubrey Wood and Loretta Richardson each had 25 in Machias' win over Fort Kent.

Scarborough's Phil Conley won his 200th game.

If you went to bed early (or don't have League Pass), you missed a fantastic game between Dallas and Charlotte.

Cooper is now the first rookie to have a 49+ points and 10 rebounds game since Michael Jordan and the youngest ever to score 45+ in a game.

Just a kid from Maine.

There's a number of interesting games on the schedule (Windham/Cheverus! Medomak/Oceanside! Bangor/EL! Wisdom/Katahdin! Morse/Leavitt girls!) but the Stax Index is sending us to Erskine Academy.

We know the entire tournament field for girls B North.

This is the early leader for Region of Death.

Bapst is OUT with 2 games to play at 49th in the Power Rankings. To put that in perspective, in B South Marshwood is probably going to get a bye at 47th. In A South, Kennebunk is IN at 72nd. In A North, Brunswick is probably going to be the 7 seed at 59th. They might be the best team to miss the tourney since the spreadsheet that hates your team started. Which is just to say B North is really, really hard.

As for this game, both Cony and Erskine have an outside shot at getting a bye, but if not, this could be a preview of a prelim game.

If you look at this at a glance (you know, like the Facebook comments), you see an Erskine team that's 12-3 vs a Cony team that's 9-7 and how could they possibly be in 9th??? Heal Points are so confusing! Well, it's the schedule. Erskine has played the 78th hardest schedule in the state (against which they're +269), but Cony has played the 6th hardest (-16). It's a little strange considering they're 13 miles from each other and play in the same conference and region, but Erskine plays MCI, Winslow, and Waterville twice and Cony does not.

Cony has been very up and down. They got crushed by Gardiner in December and then nearly won at Gardiner last week. The lost to Lawrence by 15 and then beat them by 11 a week later.

This could be a Cony win by 20, an Erskine win by 20, or a game that comes down to the final minute and everything in-between.

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