WATERVILLE, Maine — The Caribou sixth-grade boys basketball travel team was crowned champions of the Maine Hoops Town Team Championship in Waterville over the weekend of Feb. 26-27.
The largest basketball tournament in the area, the Maine Hoops tourney featured 12 teams from Aroostook County to York County.
Caribou earned the Golden Ticket and right to represent Maine in Rhode Island at the New England Championships 2022 on the weekend of March 18-20, The top teams from Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine will compete in this tournament.
Coached by Josh Bell, Gregg Miller and Griffin St. Peter, the Caribou squad features Camden Codrey, Brayden Amero, Chandler St.Peter, Hayden Holabird, Tristen Merchant, Carter St.Pierre, Declan Miller and Kooper Bell.
Caribou won its first game of the tournament, Saturday, Feb. 26, beating Gorham 73-50; and rallied to beat Glenburn, 58-38 in its second game thanks to a strong zone defense.
On Sunday, Caribou defeated Hall-Dale 49-36 in a rough, physical game. Caribou then faced undefeated Bangor, and managed to shut down the team’s best shooter, en route to a 52-44 victory to advance to the championship game.
“The kids went wild for a couple reasons,” coach Bell said. “First, they just beat the team that was the favorite to win it all. Secondly, it punched our pass to the regionals in Rhode Island.”
In the championship against York, Caribou faced its toughest challenge yet, but managed to pull off a 59-50 victory.
“We knew very little about this team going into it, but thought if we could play a fast up and down game we had a chance,” coach Bell said. “They played man-to-man defense in the first half and couldn’t stop us.”
