The Caribou boys’ recreation basketball team won the Northern Maine Community Recreation Association Championship March 2 at the Caribou Wellness and Recreation Center gymnasium.
Seven county teams took part in the two-day event with Ashland and Washburn matching up in the first game of the tournament March 1. Alex Hyde paced Washburn to the victory by scoring 10 points.
Game two of the tournament featured Caribou against Easton. Caribou had many contributors in this contest to help the team move on to the next round. Parker Deprey was the top scorer with 11 points.
Presque Isle and Limestone squared off in another first-round contest. The Wildcats started out very strong as they had two scorers reach the double digits. Jason Dumais netted 18 points and Erick Tompkins 14 as the Wildcats moved on to the semifinals.
Contributed photo
Members of the champion Caribou Parks and Recreation Department grades 5-6 boys’ basketball team, which won the Aroostook County Tournament held Saturday in Caribou, are, in front from left, Hayden Hunter, Jacob Berkoski, Dagan Savage, Sebastian Marquis, Tyler Wright and Josh Cummings. Back row, coach Matt Bouchard, Tharen Hand, Parker Deprey, Jacob Paul, Austin Findlen, Alex Bouchard, Alex Ezzy and coach Kyle Corrigan.
Caribou matched up against Washburn in the first of two semifinal games. Caribou’s Dagan Savage took charge and led the team with 12 points. Deprey finished with 10 and Austin Findlen and Tyler Wright each had eight.
Josh Cummings, Tharen Hand and Hayden Hunter all played exceptionally well on defense to stop Washburn and move on to the championship game.
In the second semifinal Presque Isle stopped a feisty Fort Fairfield squad. The Tigers played strong and did not give up at any point in the game, as Dawson Watson netted 13 points and led in the scoring for the Tigers.
The Wildcats’ Tompkins had a tournament scoring record in a single game with 23 points. Dumais finished with 12 points and grabbed numerous rebounds.
In the finals, Caribou and Presque Isle battled for the title in a very close game much of the way through. Dagan Savage hit a couple of deep shots to put the Vikings up early in the contest, but Presque Isle would not let Caribou get much of a lead in the first half of action as Tompkins threw in 11 points to keep the margin within 3.
In the second half, Caribou had a strong 18-5 third period to take control. Caribou entered the second half strong with Findlen posting up underneath and taking advantage of his great spin move to tally 15 points in the game. Alex Bouchard added 14 points for the Vikes as well to help give Caribou the 2013 NMCRA championship title.
The top scorer for the Wildcats was Tompkins with 19 points.
A five-member all-tournament team was selected at the end of the event. The five standout players were Washburn’s Hyde, Fort Fairfield’s Watson, Presque Isle’s Tompkins and Bouchard and Findlen from the victorious Caribou squad.
