Snow heralds varsity high school basketball

Class B exhibitions at PIHS
Presque Isle High School hosted the fifth annual Tip-Off Classic attended by Mattanawcook, Carleton/North and Waterville. The Wildcat boys conquered over Waterville on Friday, 44-36, and continued with a winning streak into Saturday’s game against Carleton/North, 50-32.
The boys pleased coach Tim Prescott on defense, but will need to keep working the offense. “There’s a certain amount of mistakes that have to happen and if you have a decent pre-season it’s good to get it out of the way,” noted Prescott. “So it was very productive for us.”
The Wildcat girls gained valuable court experience in their two matchups. PIHS lost to Waterville on Friday, 64-25. On Saturday’s game against Mattanawcook, Sarah Porter tested as the new point guard for the Wildcats. The Big Blue came out aggressive and fast, pounding the ball to their basket and went into halftime with the lead. However, Mattanawcook fought back to take the 51-33 victory.
Class D pre-season at Washburn and Limestone
Washburn District High School held the Washburn Invitational Basketball Tournament on Friday and Saturday attended by the boys’ varsity teams of Washburn, Fort Fairfield, Central Aroostook and Ashland.
The tournament began Friday night with the Panthers meeting against the Tigers. Central Aroostook and Fort Fairfield looked close in the first half, but the Panthers sped away with the 69-54 win.
“We were not intense enough,” commented Fort Fairfield’s head coach, Todd Alley. “We need to put in four quarters of solid basketball. We had a lapse in the second quarter.”
Junior Tiger Austin Dufour led the Tiger scoring with 18 points followed by fellow junior Doug Sharpe with 10. Junior Ryan Noyes sprang to the basket for eight rebounds.
In the following game, the Hornets played to the 74-52 win over the Beavers in a high scoring matchup.
Hornets Tyler Cote and Jeremy Tarr each had 19 points followed by Carl Nemer with 11. Beaver Cody Frank tallied the most Washburn scores with 13 points. Evan Sperrey netted 10 points and Nick McIntosh had nine.
On Saturday, the Tigers just out shot the Hornets in the third game of the tournament, 61-52.
Dufour again had the top Tiger scoring effort of 16 followed by Josh Booth with 10 and Matt Cresenzo with nine. Alley praised the boys’ ability to bounce back after losing the previous night. According to Alley, the Tigers will need that mentality with their regular season schedule.
Ashland’s Cote shot for 17 points, Nemer 15 and Jeremy Tarr 10. Jason Levesque boxed out for 13 rebounds.
“Without our starting center (senior Lucas Belanger), we gave them a very good game,” noted Hornet coach Joel Hall. “Our defensive intensity was much higher. We had a short walkthrough before we left the Ashland gymnasium for the tournament and it seemed to work.” The boys were clearer on their defensive assignments and created a lot of turnovers. Those led to transition baskets that we needed.”
The Hornets’ speed and stealth gave them a combined total of 15 steals in Saturday’s game.
Hall believed the tournament gave the Hornets some beneficial experience. “Each player came away with a positive attitude, while at the same time they each know at least one thing they need to work on individually.”
In the final game, Central Aroostook posted their second victory over Washburn, 60-22.         The first quarter the Beavers kept pace with the Panthers, however Central Aroostook eventually proved their competitive experience from seasoned players.
Most valuable players in the Washburn tournament were Fort Fairfield’s Dufour and Central Aroostook’s Manny Martinez. Beaver McIntosh, Hornets Cote and Jeremy Tarr and Panther Cameron York were honored as tournament all-stars.
Limestone Community School/Maine School of Math and Science hosted the Northern Maine Round Robin on Saturday attended by Van Buren, Wisdom, Easton and Limestone/MSSM.
The Easton boys’ varsity won all three of their games. “It was good to see what we can do,” noted coach Travis Carter. “It was a good start for us.”
Easton’s Brad Trask also won the three-point competition held the same day.
The Easton girls lost their three games but gained valuable experience.
“The round robin was a great chance for us to see some pressure and to get the first game jitters out of the way,” said coach Evan Graves. “Being a young team we just need to get that experience in and get some confidence. We have some talent that will really come around as the season moves on.”
The Limestone/MSSM boys’ lost a tight game in their first competition of the day against Van Buren, 38-36.
The second game the Eagles came away with the 37-21 win over Wisdom, and finished in another close scoring match against Easton, 44-34. Matt Enman led the Eagle scoring in all three games with his senior shooting abilities.
“It was nice to see the young kinds play well,” noted coach Ryan Deprey. “We were competitive in all three games and it was good experience.”
The Limestone/MSSM girls’ had a 1-2 record in the tournament.
“We played everybody to get a feel for our players,” said coach Jamie Labreck. “We have a young group and they haven’t seen all the things varsity can throw at us.”