The Caribou/Mattanawcook Classic, Part I

If you're a regular reader of this little old newsletter, you know that I publish it on days that have countable games--so essentially 6 days a week--and that adds a slightly strange thing where on most Mondays the newsletter is recapping games from Saturday instead of the day before. It's a small thing. But around Christmas, it's a bigger break. Anyway, all that to say we're talking about games from Tuesday. I'll go fast.

You probably already heard about the instant classic between Mattanawcook and Caribou.

The Lynx used a 26-point second quarter to build a 16-point halftime lead behind a stellar night from Andrew Oliver. Oliver was fantastic, finishing with 49 points, which might be the season high for an individual outburst? But even with Oliver's scoring, Caribou would not be denied. Led by Owen Corrigan (who had 38!), Caribou came all the way back and the game was tied at 76 with 17 seconds left. Let's go to the tape.

That's Landen Belanger with the dagger, his only bucket of the game. And not a moment too soon.

They play again on January 3rd. Leader in the clubhouse for Game of the Day, I suspect.

Let's go to Brewer, where there was drama.

Brewer’s thrilling rivalry win against Bangor punctuated by disagreement over score

The Bangor-Brewer rivalry is more than a century old, and players on both boys basketball teams did that storied history proud Tuesday night.

Bangor Daily NewsMatt Junker

With Brewer up 43-41 in the fourth quarter, Bangor senior Harry Fitzpatrick was fouled and went down hard, eventually hobbling to the free-throw line. Fitzpatrick made one of two free-throws, but that point from the line seemed to be missed at the scorer’s table and the official score remained 43-41 (that fourth quarter sequence can be confirmed by watching the broadcast from Ticket TV). 

Despite protestations from the Bangor bench and fans, along with several confabs between referees, coaches and the scorer’s table, the score was not updated.

What the BDN story doesn't include is a small, yet important detail: Bangor didn't have a book at the table. So when there was a mistake in the Brewer book, there was no way to correct it. By rule, the home book is the official book, although it doesn't have to be, and if there is a disagreement between the home and visitor books, the scorers and the refs can sort it out and make any corrections. But, if there's only one book, it's kind of hard to do that.

Brewer won by 3, but a game that's 43-41 plays out differently than a game that's 43-42. And that's why you want to have someone good on your book.

In the Game of the Day, the Cheverus girls blew out Windham to ascend to the top of the Power Rankings (which are updated!).

Elsewhere

Brayden Dana had 24 in Woodland's win over Calais...Carson Veilleux scored 16 and Akol Maiwen added 15 as Edward Little beat Brunswick...Gavin Fanjoy's 19 led Erskine to a win over Waterville...Preston Brown hit 5 threes and scored 23 points as Gorham outlasted Deering...Colin Janvrin had 11 points, 12 boards, and 6 blocked shots and Tyrie James scored 16 and Windham handled Cheverus...Scarlett Mooney had 16 as Oak Hill blew out Lisbon...Caliegh Corcoran went for 23 as SoPo doubled up Westbrook...Celia Bergdahl's 16 & 13 led Maranacook past Dirigo...Zoe Dellinger led the way with 19 in Gorham's win over Deering...Elizabeth Galway led Edward Little with 18 as they beat Brunswick...Alex Mains led Poland's balanced scoring attack against Cape...Ephraim Luseko's 21 & 9 and Lucas LeGage's 17 fueled Portland's win over Falmouth...Darius Johnson had 16 in SoPo's win over Westbrook.

It's holiday tournament time!

I think I'll be back and forth between Portland and Augusta tomorrow, as there's a bunch of interesting games.

In Portland tomorrow:

The games with a * are regular season games. The full schedule is at the link:

Maine High School Holiday Basketball Tournament

Come and watch some of the best in Girls and Boys High School Basketball. This showcase features some of the best teams from Maine and beyond. The event, organized by Portland High’s Joe Russo, promises to deliver high-energy, quality basketball over four days. Come for one game or come for a day, and watch exciting […]

The Portland Press Herald

And in Augusta, those Cony/Gardiner games look pretty good.

Capital City Hoops Classic — Augusta Civic Center

The Capital City Hoops Classic will be at the Augusta Civic Center December 27th and 29th - 30th, 2025.

Augusta Civic Center0

Up next in the recurring series I'm calling "Cooper Does Something Awesome. Again." Episode 68: Cooper & Pistol Pete.

Did anyone else wear out a VHS tape of the Pistol Pete movie? Do you think that was in the mix with the '86 Celtics tapes the Flaggs watched on repeat?

If you're like me and stick around for the end of a blowout Celtics win, sometimes you catch an absolute gem of a moment.

Can we get this on the WHOU broadcasts during the tourney?

If you want to be picky, the Game of the Day should be the Lawrence girls at Oceanside, a rematch of an overtime classic from earlier this month, but my rule is if teams play twice, only one of them can be Game of the Day. Spread the love and all that.

So we'll head to Old Town, where the Coyotes will hold MDI in a Big East matchup in the new-look B North.

Oh boy.

Old Town is sitting in 6th at 4-1, with the one loss coming to Hermon on Monday. They've got a blowout win at Caribou which is helping fuel their +/-. They'll host MDI, sitting at 5-1 with the only loss against a Bangor team that's 5-1.

But let's look at this region. They've got 8 teams in the top 30 in the rankings and if you want to round Erskine up to 9 in DIRIGO (that's the Power Ranking number), that's 6 teams between 9 and 10.7, which is very, very close.

All that to say, B North girls could be an absolute bloodbath down the stretch (and in the tourney) and every game matters.

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