SoPo at the Buzzer?

First, I want to just say that this is only the second day of the season and already things are at an epic level. First, the Camden game-winner over Edward Little. And then last night happened.

Also this is 1700 words on day 2 of the season.

First, let's go to Portland.

When looking at last night's schedule, the South Portland @ Cheverus double-header was an obvious draw. First, the regular season games with the teams formerly in AA mean a lot more in the new classification system. The playoffs aren't guaranteed and A South is hard enough a team that could previously coast to a 4 seed might find themselves battling for a playoff spot. If you were a 6 seed in AA? That's going to be very tough sledding. And in an A South girls region with 3 defending Regional Champs, Heal Points will be incredibly valuable.

South Portland, as you might remember, beat Cheverus in the State Championship game last year behind a big game from Annie Whitmore and for most of the first half, it seemed like they might cruise to an Opening Night win. There were flashes of Cheverus' defense, but it was all SoPo. They led by 10 at the half.

In the second half, the Cheverus defense came alive, fueled by Miss Basketball candidate Kylie Lamson.

Cheverus tied it in the third, built a small lead in the 4th, and hit their free throws down the stretch to come away with a huge win.

Lamson finished with 17. Caleigh Corcoran had a game-high 18 for SoPo.

Michael Hoffer was there.

Cheverus girls ride second half surge to stun South Portland

PORTLAND—For a quarter-and-a-half Friday evening at Keegan Gymnasium, South Portland’s girls’ basketball team looked like a squad coming off a state championship and ready to win another. But the host Cheverus Stags had seen about enough of the Red Riots pushing them around and what resulted over the game’s

Hoffer's High School SportsMichael Hoffer

Up north, Wisdom's Ava Lerner (who didn't, as Tyler Krusz told me in the Wins Draft podcast, graduate last year) scored her 1,000th point in a win over Madawaska.

Up at Mt. Abram, Chase Ross called GAME.

(I'm told these Facebook reels embeds will work, but I'm skeptical, so I'm linking to them as well until I'm confident)

If you're a young basketball player from the Pine Tree State who can jump more than a little bit, your first dunk technical is a rite of passage. They don't come as frequently as they used to. Back in the years before COVID, they were an epidemic.

Many say refs in Maine basketball playoffs getting too technical with dunking rule

Players, coaches and fans are befuddled to see some dunks that were OK in the regular season drawing technical fouls in state tournament games.

The Portland Press HeraldSteve CraigStaff Writer

And by that, I mean that we were a national laughingstock for a little while.

Anyway, that's mostly gone away, but every so often we get a dunk technical.

Cheverus Freshman Khaelon Watkins got his first career tech in his first game. It was, I believe, his 4th dunk of the game.

If you want to say this should be a tech, I won't argue with you. It's clearly not flagrant. His dunk before this one was essentially the same thing (I missed it with my phone, sadly. I'm getting the hang of sideline video.) We had a dunk last year in a Bangor Christian game that was obviously a tech. This wasn't that. Again, I wasn't shocked it was called.

We also had a bench technical and a player sent to the bench because his shirt was untucked.

But, man, do Watkins (17 points) and Leonel Despacho (16) look good. When people tell you this is the Year of the Freshmen, believe them.

Cheverus led for nearly all of this one. They led by 10 with 4 minutes left and would score 1 point the rest of the way, going ice cold from the free throw line. SoPo got a couple of turnovers, including this Gabe Jackson steal and 3 that got them within 2. He finished with 29, including 14 in the final quarter.

And eventually it was South Portland ball in a tied game with seconds to play.

That's Darius Johnson with the winner.

So you'll notice some confusion at the end. The clock was stopped with 0.6 seconds left--enough time to do something. A Cheverus player is signaling for a timeout. There's players on the floor. There's fans on the floor. And the officials huddle, declare the game is over, and go home. Not everyone is happy with that, as you can see.

By rule, the clock does not stop in that situation in high school basketball. So if your opponent scores down 5 with 3 seconds left, just don't inbound the ball and the clock will run out. So why is the clock stopped? I spoke to the timekeeper after the game and he said he stopped the clock because he heard a whistle. That's what you do. There was roughly 1.2 left when the ball went through the rim and you can hear a whistle, clearly, but that's not for 4 seconds after the bucket, so time would have expired. The determination from the officials was that he timekeeper stopped the clock early because he thought he heard something in the bedlam (and considering the home team needed the extra time, it's understandable he'd have a quick trigger), but it's the correct call. It's not hard to see why Cheverus' coaching staff wouldn't agree.

I don't know about anyone else, but a doubleheader with 2 great games, a dunk technical, and a controversial ending? This is my Christmas.

What a start to the season.

Hoops 8 is back with a new logo!

Elsewhere

Jack Fontaine dropped 27 in Marancook's win over Winthrop...Zoey Sullivan-Brennan had 17 in Gardiner's win over Belfast...Bonny Eagle's Kylie Cole almost out-scored Falmouth by herself 22-25...Reece MacDonald had 13 as York cruised...Yarmouth's Evan Orenellas dropped 25 on Poland...Mason Nguyen led Medomak with 24 at Erskine...Angelina Keo had 19 in Deering's win over Portland...Charlotte Ranger fueled a big second half as Edward Little got revenge for their boys team with in win over Camden (in Rockport)...Kelsea Rancourt's 14 led Forest Hills past Vinalhaven...the Forest Hills boys beat Vinalhaven in overtime(!) behind 37 from Jaxson Desjardins...Colin Schlobohm had 25/9/6 to lead Leavitt to an overtime win over Lincoln Academy. Aidyn Herring had 24 for the Eagles...Brayden Furbush had 19 and Jacob Linkletter added 18 & 8 in Madison's win over Monmouth...Gaven Parsons' 15 led Buckfield over Telstar...Bonny Eagle used a big 2nd quarter to beat Falmouth...Freshman Carter Braithwaite had 26 in Cony's win over Noko. Jackson Kay added a double-double...Cape got 18 from Owen Beaureguard to beat Fryeburg...Tyrie James (33) out-dueled De’Shawn Alston (29) and Windham beat TA by 2...Kevin Bolduc had 20 points, 9 boards, and 5 steals as Wells blew out NYA...Harry Louis had 14 and 7 assists as Valley blew out Rangeley...Kirsten Bigelow had 20 and Valley jumped out to a 32-1 lead over Rangeley (they held on)...Nya Avery had 18 as York beat Lake...Marley Jarvais had 20 in Windham's win over TA...Leah Adams' 12p/11r/8s almost triple-double led Messo over Mt. Blue...Mollie Puffer's 14 helped Sanford hold off Biddeford(!)...Kayleigh Wagg was one of 3 Eagles in double figures as the champs cruised by Lewiston...Adam Fitzgerald's 19 and Carter Blanche's 14 & 12 got Scarborough by Gorham...Brady Philbrick put up 18 in Dirigo's win over Mountain Valley...Hall-Dale got 18 from Tayshaun Cleveland in a win over Oak Hill...'Bunk raced out to a 39-11 halftime lead over Noble behind Dylan Myhal...Oliver Cormier led Mt. Blue with 18 in a win over Messo...Cooper Simms had 16 in Marshwood's win over Massabesic...Lewiston's Grayson Bernard dropped 23 on Mt. Ararat...Gabby Smith’s 18 led Leavitt over Lincoln Academy...the Poland girls led by 3 at the half, then locked down and allowed 3 the rest of the way against Yarmouth (they won)...Gorham hit 8 threes against Gorham to win a tight one...Luke Gendron's 20 paced Sanford against Biddeford...Lucas LeGage dropped 27 on Deering...Silas Nielsen had 10 points, 11 boards, and 5 blocked shots against Traip.

WHOU previewed the Aroostook County season on their maybe podcast(?)

Steve Carmichael (on the right) joined me for the first-ever Mr./Miss Basketball Draft, which will drop Monday evening on YouTube. Some of the people drafted are off to really good starts!

Today

I'm still working on the girls schedules. The whole day job and driving to Cheverus for a double-header thing took up most of the day. I think I'll have it done today and we should be fully cooking for Monday's games.

I'll also update the Power Rankings after today's games.

If you've got a buzzer-beater, awesome play, unruly fan, or whatever, send it my way and I'll help get the word out. There were probably 90 games today. I can't see everything. But I do tend to check all my messages.

Game of the Day

If you aren't in the County, the schedule is pretty light today.

The Caribou boys start their title defense against Ellsworth and Mattanawcook hosts Dexter.

I don't have the girls Model up yet, but Bangor @ Brunswick looks intriguing.

You can see all the spreads at a glance.

Spreads

But did you beat the spread?

Maine Basketball RankingsLucas McNelly

The Model's picks for today's (boys) games are after the jump.