Marshwood at the Buzzer

We got a buzzer-beater and an upset!

After a class S appetizer that maybe should have been sent back to the kitchen, the tourney kicked off with everyone else on the traditional Friday afternoon slate from all three venues. So what did Day 3 bring us? A preview of how great the tournament will be. It looks like we had 3 games that came down to the wire.

Let's start in Portland.

The York girls are no stranger to the tournament--this was their 22nd consecutive trip to a neutral floor--and are hoping to make some noise this year as the 3 seed in B South. They squared off against a Poland team hoping to win their first quarterfinal game in 8 years. And at first, it looked like they might. They used a 7-0 run in the first quarter to raise the upset red flags, but York stormed back. A 20-4 second quarter gave the Wildcats the lead at the break. Poland had cut a 13 point deficit down to 3 when York attempted to check Sophie Coite back into the game, only to learn she had 5 and the officials assessed them a technical. This led to some confusion. York did not appear to think Coite had 5 fouls. I didn't think she had 5 fouls. I went back and watched the broadcast. She picked up that final foul with 5:22 left in the game.

You can watch the clip for yourself.

That doesn't look like a player who just fouled out of a playoff game, you know? But apparently they announced it over the PA. It's hard to hear on the broadcast. I don't know. I'm just not convinced she actually fouled out.

In the end, it didn't matter. Poland never got closer than 2 and York went 11/14 from the line in the fourth quarter to escape with a win. Nya Avery led the way with 17.

Ethan Snow reminded me after the York/Poland game that we traditionally get an overtime game on Friday at the Expo and lamented the missed opportunity of York hitting their free throws down the stretch. Well...

Let's jump to the 4/5 game. Much like York, Marshwood started slowly and used a big second quarter to get back in the game. Greely led by as many as 8 before Marshwood closed the half on a 12-2 run to take a 6-point lead. Greely immediately wiped that out to start the second half. Marshwood nursed a 2 to 6 point lead for most of the half until Avery Bush tied the game at 43 with just over 2 minutes left. We traded missed threes and then...

Greely just burned their final timeout in a tie game with 1:31 to go

Just noting that in case
— Maine Basketball Rankings (@MEBBallRankings) February 14, 2026

I don't think that changed the outcome of the game, but it felt risky at the time. Greely burned a bunch of clock but gave it away when Jolie Folger came up with her first steal of the game with 35.1 seconds left. Marshwood held for the final shot, but Renee St. Pierre lost control of it with 6 seconds left, which led to...

That's Natalie Lathrop with the banked-in three to win it at the buzzer (I do not believe she called bank) and Marshwood advanced to the semifinals. Lathrop led all scorers with 17 and was 3/6 from deep. Isabelle Tice added 14. Hannah Hussey and Avery Bush led Greely with 11 each. That's not her first buzzer-beater.

Michael Hoffer was there.

We finish in Bangor, where Ellsworth pulled off the upset of the tournament so far. At one point, Old Town led by 9 in the first half, but Ellsworth came back. They led by 3 with 6 seconds left.

And then.

@easternmainesport
Offensive foul ball back to Ellsworth with 6 seconds left #tourney26
♬ original sound - 🍓

That looks like a charge from that angle and a gutsy move by the defender to stand in there and take it. #7 Ellsworth advances behind 18 points from Kaylee Bagley. Emma Ketch led Old Town with 17.

Elsewhere

Mt. Ararat hit a class A record 11 threes and got their usual balanced scoring. Cali LeClair made 4 of them. Jenna Jensen had 12 & 7...Freshman Bryn Gilmore had 15 points, 10 boards, and 4 steals as GNG eliminated a pesky Freeport, who got perhaps the most impactful zero point performance (8 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 blocked shot) I've seen in a long time from Ky Kennedy...Maddie Provost had 26. Ashley Shores went for 22 & 8 and Lawrence advanced...Hope Fontaine's 12 & 9 led Edward Little over Bangor...Aubrey Shaw scored 16 and Hampden out-rebounded Lewiston 42-24...Renee Ripley scored 21 points, pulled down 6 rebounds, had 7 dimes and 4 steals and controlled the game as Oceanside cruised. Olivia Breen added 22 and the Mariners also hit 11 3's...Hermon opened a big lead early over Belfast. Carter Wiggin led the way with 21...Leah Jones stuffed the stat sheet with 17/4r/2a/2s/2b and Camden rolled over Brunswick...Brady Atwater's 14/10/6 led Gardiner over Erskine.

Maine Basketball Rankings is only made possible by our subscribers

To get more data, game predictions, and more

Subscribe now

Let's take a look at a region-by-region EFF leaderboard, thanks to the Live Stats doing in collaboration with the MPA.

A North

B North

B South

You can find stats from every game played so far on the Tourney Player Stats page, which lets you filter by region, gender, or team.

There's a lot of good options today. There's Gardiner/Cony girls, which would be a massive draw in Augusta. In Bangor? We'll see. There's Cheverus/TA and pretty much all of A South at the Expo. The entire A South slate has Game of the Day numbers.

But we're going back to MDI/Ellsworth. I have a rule that we don't repeat matchups for Game of the Day, but I think that should only apply to the regular season. They just did this on the final day of the regular season, with both teams locked into their seed and nothing to play for, and Ellsworth won a thriller at home 71-69.

What more do you need to know?

Today's Matchups

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