Warriors run into foul trouble, Tiger’s big man

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    BANGOR — When the going gets tough in a basketball game, it is good to have a big man to lean on. Fortunately for the Fort Fairfield boys, John McNamee fits the bill.
    McNamee, a 6-foot, 5-inch senior, poured in 30 points to rally No. 3 Fort Fairfield (17-2) past No.6 Southern Aroostook (13-5) 67-61 Saturday in an Eastern Class D quarterfinal game at the Bangor Auditorium.
    Fort Fairfield advances to face No. 7 Shead (14-4) Thursday at 2:05 p.m. in the semifinals at the Bangor Auditorium. That game will be televised on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network (PBS). Shead defeated No. 2 Central Aroostook 69-55 in the other Class D quarterfinal played Saturday.
    Fort Fairfield did not face Shead during the regular season and did not share any common opponents on their schedule.
Pioneer Times photograph/Joe Cyr
DRIVES – Southern Aroostook’s Dakota Sleeper drives by the Tiger’s John McNamee and Dereck Dufour for a lay up in last Saturday’s Class D quarterfinal game. The Warriors lost 67-61.
    Southern Aroostook’s Dakota Sleeper had a sensational game, scoring 30 points for the Warriors. The bulk of Sleepers’ scoring came in the first half, where he netted 22 points, including four 3-pointers.
    Travis Noyes added 17 for Fort Fairfield in the victory.
    Getting the ball to its big man was something the Tigers did not do much of early in Saturday’s game as McNamee had just one point coming off a free throw with 45 seconds to play in the period.
    “Our strength has got to be John,” Fort Fairfield coach Todd Alley said. “He doesn’t necessarily have to shoot the ball, but he has to touch the ball. We have other kids who can hit the outside shot.”
    “We had to hit our shots and we knew that,” Southern Aroostook coach Vaughn Sleeper said. “Their big guy was the difference. No doubt about it. I threw what I call ‘my bigs’ at him but by the end, we were throwing everything we had at him.”
    Southern Aroostook tried double and sometimes triple teaming McNamee, particularly in the second-half, but it proved all for naught. Southern Aroostook’s tallest player, 6-foot, 4-inch senior Jesse Small, fouled out in the third quarter, while 6-0 sophomore Patrick Goodall fouled out midway through the fourth period.
    As impressive as McNamee’s effort was, another compelling storyline was the play of junior forward Noyes, whose status for the game was very much in question leading up to Saturday’s contest as he suffered a severely sprained ankle a week prior.
Pioneer Times photograph/Joe Cyr
WAY UP – Southern Aroostook senior Nick Tarr jumps high to challenge Fort’s John McNamee, who loses control of the ball.
    “Travis is better with his back to the basket,” Alley said. “But he blew out his ankle in our last regular season game and this was his first action since. To be honest, I didn’t think he was going to play coming in.”
    The coach said Noyes underwent every type of treatment they could find to heal his injured ankle. He even went so far as to borrow a page from Presque Isle’s history book by having Noyes rub a raw potato on his ankle. Kim Condon was a player for PIHS in the late 1990s who suffered a sprained ankle and used an old wife’s tale of putting a cut potato on her ankle to reduce swelling. She was able to play two days later.
    With Southern Aroostook clinging to a 48-49 lead to start the fourth quarter, the two sides traded baskets over the first two minutes of the period. The Tigers took the lead for good on a Noyes 3-pointer with 4:50 to play. After the basket, Noyes blew a kiss to the Tiger fans, resulting in a thunderous ovation.
    The Tigers focused their energy on feeding the ball to their big man in the final two minutes, and McNamee answered the call, scoring a pair of buckets from the post to give Fort Fairfield a 61-56 lead with 2:35 to play.
    Sleeper pulled the Warriors to within one possession — 61-58 — when he converted an acrobatic layup in the paint, one of many on the evening for the senior, with 1:59 to play.
    Fort Fairfield smartly started working time off the clock, forcing the Warriors to foul. McNamee missed a pair of free throws, but Noyes sank three of four foul shots to give the Tigers a 64-58 lead with 37 seconds remaining.
Pioneer Times photograph/Joe Cyr
SIZE DIFFERENCE – The Southern Aroostook Warriors gave away a lot of size in the interior, as shown in the photograph above. SACS’ Pat Goodall attempts to go back up for a shot over Fort Fairfield’s big man John McNamee during Saturday’s Class D quarterfinal game at the Bangor Auditorium.
    Sleeper, who was off the mark from behind the 3-point arc in the second half after a red-hot first half, drilled a fade-away trey with 25 second to go, cutting the lead to 64-61. Southern Aroostook immediately fouled McNamee, who made one of two foul shots with 24.8 seconds, prompting the Warriors to take their final timeout.
    Following a Southern Aroostook missed jumper, Josh Churchill was sent to the line with 5.4 seconds remaining when he was intentionally fouled. Churchill sank both for the decisive 67-61 lead.
    According to SACS coach Sleeper, Dakota’s father, his son played much of the season on an injured knee.
    “He pulled the patella tendon in his knee last year and it never really healed,” coach Sleeper said. “This being his senior year, he wanted to play through it. He’s learned an awful lot playing Warriors’ ball. I couldn’t be more proud of these guys. Just to get here was a feat in itself and we put on a good show.”