Medomak Stuns Lincoln

In the Game of the Day, Hermon pulled away in the 2nd and 3rd quarters behind Abbie Bradstreet to post a 48-32 win over Ellsworth to split the season series.

Ryan McLaughlin was there.

Hermon is now third in that loaded B North.

Gardiner has the 1 seed locked up, but there's a ton of possibilities beyond that as we go down the stretch run.

Tourney Odds

Will your team make the tournament?

Maine Basketball RankingsLucas McNelly

I went to the Medomak @ Lincoln Academy boys/girls doubleheader (more boys/girls doubleheaders, please), two games with playoff implications for all 4 teams.

The first half of the Lincoln Academy/Medomak Valley girls game would probably best be described, regardless of your fandom, as "awful". There were turnovers of all shapes and sizes. You name the type of turnover and it happened–several times. It was ugly, ugly basketball. Medomak led by 17-14 at the half and I'm not sure how they scored that many points.

At the end of the third, Rowan Coffin fueled a Lincoln Academy run.

The run stretched into the 4th quarter and just like that, Lincoln Academy had a 33-23 lead before Sienna Lee stopped the bleeding with a jumper in the paint with 4:37 to play.

Medomak got a little closer as the game got more frenetic. Paula Roberts of the Lincoln County News had 59 total turnovers on her stats. That feels low. I think the Misery Rating (fouls + turnovers) had to be close to 100. Lincoln tried to bleed some clock, but struggled to hold on to the ball and Medomak struggled to convert turnovers into points (and hold on to the ball). As the clock ticked past 2 minutes, I had the feeling the Panthers would get the ball enough to close the gap, but could they actually score? It seemed dire for the Panthers.

Cut to: 1;37 to go with Lincoln up 6:

Medomak figured it out and in talking to people post-game, the consensus was that the situation was so dire they couldn't think about it. They had to just go.

That's Rachel Barbour with the game winner with 7 seconds left. Lincoln was unable to get a shot off. Medomak escaped with a 37-35 win, ending the game on a 14-2 run. Medomak was favored by...1.8.

The win takes Medomak's odds of making the postseason from 67% to 80% and drops Lincoln Academy's chances from 24% to 15%.

In the boys game, Medomak Valley raced out to an early lead in a game that was largely rote, but we did get a look at the new high school goaltending rule, courtesy of Kollin Donlin.

From the NFHS:

The act of intentionally slapping or striking the backboard during a shot attempt will now result in basket interference and not a technical foul. This addition of new Rule 4-6-2 and corresponding removal of Rule 10-4-4b from the “Player Technical” section aims to standardize officiating and remove intent from the decision.

Despite fouling out on a play where the officials gave him someone else's foul, Donlin finished with 16. Mason Nguyen led all scorers with a career-high 36 points and 10 rebounds.

Mattanawcook's Megan House notched her 1,000th point on a fast break.

Elsewhere

Monmouth's Kaitlyn Frost dropped 25 on Boothbay...Alice Ferran had 16 points and 12 steals and Celia Bergdahl scored 20 as Maranacook rolled over Lisbon...Madison Blanchard's 18 led Mountain Valley over Hall-Dale...Maddie Grimaldi had 14 as Spruce beat Mount Abram...Kristen Bigelow had 19 and Valley raced out to a 32-0 lead against Richmond...Jordyn Crump had 15 as Biddeford rolled over Portland...Jacob Linkletter's 20 & 7 helped Madison overcome 29 from Oak Hill's Braden New...Fisher Tewksbury went off for 36 as Valley rolled by Richmond...Sanford's Mollie Puffer had 18 to match Massabesic's 18. She also got help...Abby Luczynski went off for 35 as Dirigo knocked off Winthrop...Aleck Gendreau had 24 in Madawaska's win over Van Buren.

Mike Mandell has a story in Varsity Maine about the storylines to watch in boys basketball the rest of the way and it's got Tourney Odds!

Since failing to qualify for the Western Class B playoffs in 1991, Greely has appeared in 33 consecutive regional tournaments. Yet at 4-9, the 11th-place Rangers are below the line in Class B South, with Maine Basketball Rankings giving them roughly 1-in-6 odds (17.0 percent) to qualify.

33 consecutive tourney appearances is a wild, wild stat. Even the most reliably solid programs in the state have a bad season every 20 years or so.

It looks like Greely needs to win 3 more games to be in the conversation for a play-in spot.

The rest of the schedule is brutal, but there's plenty of opportunities to move up and keep that streak alive.

Five Maine high school boys basketball storylines in late January

The Mr. Basketball race takes shape, teams cling to their tournament hopes, and a junior in central Maine is throwing down jams.

The Portland Press HeraldMike MandellStaff Writer

We've got a light schedule tonight in advance of the weekend, but there's a fun battle in C North boys between Caribou and Fort Kent.

Caribou's got a pretty good handle on the 1 seed, but it's not locked up.

Caribou is second in class C in scoring offense and 5th in point differential, despite playing the hardest schedule and they're 4th in the state in %Perfect against the Top 25, which means they show up against the best teams on their schedule.

Fort Kent is a tick below Caribou is most stat categories, but they've got a talent who can take over a game in Aden Jeffers, who already has his 1,000th point.

I haven't looked it up, but I'm going to assume WHOU will have this one.

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