AUGUSTA — Before taking the court Tuesday night, there was probably a lot of nervous energy in the locker room of the Dirigo girls’ basketball team.
Much of that excitement and anticipation may have been coming from Coach Karen Magnusson.
Though Magnusson has been part of plenty of tournament games as a player and a coach, she missed the tournament last year. She took time off from coaching and missed the atmosphere of the second season.
“It was different last year. It was hard,” Magnusson said. “High school basketball is absolutely amazing, especially in Maine. Playing in Maine and coaching in it, I love it.”
She was around the game last year at tournament time. She watched her husband, Travis, coach the Dirigo boys. She also did color commentary for the game broadcasts for Maine Public Broadcasting. Still, it wasn’t the same.
“I certainly missed it from last year and am very glad to be back,” Magnusson said.
Magnusson played for Cony during some of the Rams’ glory years. She also coached the Rams, which included one Eastern A title and a loss in the regional final to Bangor here two years ago.
When her Cougars prepared for the Western C quarterfinal with Monmouth, the coach was as excited as any player.
“For me to be able to coach again and get on the court, I just had jitters,” Magnusson said. “I was like a little kid. I was like, ‘Let’s go.'”
Her Cougars played well and beat a tough Monmouth squad to advance to Friday afternoon’s semifinal against Madison. Magnusson tried to fire up her team after the victory, because it meant another tournament game for them all.
“I want them to appreciate these moments,” Magnusson said. “When you’re playing, you don’t really get that. You’re in the moment trying to win and do all those things. Now looking back, I’m so fortunate to have played so many tournament games, and I feel very fortunate to have coached.”
Madison ousted top-seeded Boothbay at the buzzer in the quarterfinals. Dirigo beat the Bulldogs 55-47 in the regular season. Madison has been to the regional final three times in the past five years and lost to Carrabec last year. Dirigo hasn’t won a semifinal since 2006.
Soaring Falcons
In the other Western C semifinal Friday afternoon, Mountain Valley will challenge top-seeded Maranacook. The Falcons have only made this round three other times. Mountain Valley reached the Class B semifinals in 1991, 2003 and 2009. They lost all three.
Since that 2009 playoff, Mountain Valley has struggled to make the tourney, reaching just the prelims in 2012.
This year’s Mountain Valley team has made great strides under coach Ryan Casey, going 13-5 and then winning two playoff games. Not bad, considering the club has two seniors, Abby Parent and Adelle Oswald.
This has been a trend recently for Falcons’ sports. Many of these same girls helped spark a revival in the girls’ soccer and softball teams as well.
The starting lineup features juniors Karen Flaherty, Sydney Petrie and sophomores Ashley Russell, Liza White and Julia Perry. Emily Laubauskas, another sophomore, came off the bench to lead the team with 10 points in the win over Old Orchard. The Falcons have nine sophomores on the club, hinting at a bright future.
Friday’s semifinal won’t be an easy matchup. The seasoned Black Bears feature two-time KVAC Player of the Year Christine Miller. Maranacook lost in the semifinal round last year. It went 15-3 this winter before winning the KVAC championship over previously unbeaten Spruce Mountain.
Devils make, overcome history
Not unlike the long, often one-sided history of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, the Lewiston boys’ basketball team knew that if it ever was to break through and get back to a championship game, it would have to overcome the demon that is Edward Little.
“I’ve played with them my whole entire life,” Lewiston senior Quintarian Brown said. “I played basketball in Auburn Rec, so it’s great playing against them and great playing with them. I’m glad I came out on top with my team.”
No. 4 Lewiston dominated the fourth quarter Wednesday night and took out No. 1 EL, 55-45, avenging two regular-season losses and a 2012 quarterfinal defeat at Augusta Civic Center to reach its first-ever Class A East final Saturday against Hampden.
Hockey, of course, has long overshadowed hoops where the Blue Devils roam. Lewiston won its only Class A championship in 1960. It lost state title games in 1933, 1934, 1952, 1959, 1965 and 1966.
In its most recent trips to regionals, Lewiston suffered upset losses in the West final to Oxford Hills in 1990 and Biddeford in 1991.
“It feels like we just won an NBA championship,” senior Isaiah Harris said. “It’s not over yet, but that’s what it feels like.”
Harris and Trever Irish led the Devils offensively with 15 and 13 points, but it was their work on the defensive glass that prevented cold-shooting EL from mounting its customary comeback.
Lewiston limited EL’s Mr. Basketball semifinalists, Lew Jensen and Ian Mileikis, to 12 and five points, respectively.
“I have so much respect for those two, and all those kids, but especially those two,” Lewiston coach Tim Farrar said. “They’ve continued carrying the torch for that program. That was one of our keys. We’ve got to keep Llewellyn off the glass, and I thought we did a much better job the second half. The first half he got a couple. He’s just so good at it.”
Thursday’s snow-related postponements pushed back the Class A East finals 19 hours, giving Lewiston an extra day to prepare for three-time defending regional champion Hampden.
Yes, in NCAA bracketology terms, it’s like beating Duke and having Kentucky waiting in the next round. Hampden edged Lewiston, 50-45, in their lone regular-season meeting Dec. 30.
“Nick Mayo (of Messalonskee) had the best overall season, but nobody’s played better the last month than Nick Gilpin. He’s tremendous,” Farrar said of Hampden’s star point guard. “We’re going to have to figure it out, and the other kids. (Jake) Black is shooting the ball well. Both McIntyres (Brendan and Ian) are shooting well. And they’re used to being here. But right now we’ve got to enjoy this, because how often does this happen?”
Another great run for Eddies
Mike Adams has experienced the finality, but he has never grown accustomed to the feeling.
In the past eight years, EL has lost two state finals, two regional title games and four Eastern semifinals. Great teams, most of them good enough to win it all, and a majority loaded with seniors who now become part of the program’s lore instead of his everyday life.
“Fourteen years I’ve been here at EL, and fourteen years it ends like this somewhere along the way,” Adams said. “It sucks. It’s a special group of guys. They’re role models for our kids.”
As the coach made those comments, he saw his son standing in the corner, bravely fighting his own emotions and waiting to share a moment of consolation after the Eddies’ loss to Lewiston.
“It’s absolutely an honor to coach them,” Adams said. “That’s what gets me. He wants to grow up to be like them. I love them, I’m definitely sad to see them go not just because it will be harder to win without them but because they’re a joy to have around.”
EL went 18-2, earning Adams his 200th victory along the way. The Eddies went 3-1 against Hampden and Lewiston during the regular season.
They won all seven of their games decided by five points or less, which suggests how tough everyone knew the tournament would be and explains why nobody should construe Wednesday’s loss as a failure.
“We talked a lot about that. How hard it is to get here. How everything has to happen. It wasn’t meant to be tonight, but we won’t look back and say we wish we worked harder, wish we’d done this, wish we’d done that,” Adams said. “Obviously we wish we’d won, but those are very disciplined young men. They’re going to do more than alright in life.”
Phoenix frustrated
Spruce Mountain knew the only way to silence naysayers about its worthiness as a No. 1 seed in the Class B West girls’ basketball tournament was, in the words of late football firebrand Al Davis, just win, baby.
That made Tuesday’s 32-30 upset loss to No. 9 Cape Elizabeth in the quarterfinals all the more agonizing. The Phoenix’s senior class that brought together the Jay and Livermore Falls programs went 71-1 during the regular season but only 1-4 in the playoffs.
It has led some southern observers to question the strength of Spruce Mountain’s schedule, even after the school switched from the MVC to KVAC this year. But the postseason runs by Gardiner, Lincoln and other teams Spruce knocked off during the year indicates otherwise.
“People who don’t know us and don’t know our program might say that,” Spruce Mountain coach Chris Bessey said. “These girls have been successful not just in high school season. They play AAU and they’re just as successful. I just think that’s people who want to talk and be heard and argue.”
Bessey believes his team’s 90-minute bus ride to Portland has been an annual factor. A year ago, Spruce played a snow-delayed quarterfinal on Wednesday morning before returning to face Wells in a Thursday afternoon semifinal.
Spruce also was down two starters due to injury — Vanese Barnes (ankle) and Emily Keene (back) — for much of the Cape loss.
“We only went to the foul line 14 times, which was probably a season low for us. Usually we take 20-plus,” Bessey said. “We settled for a lot of 3s. That was probably dictated by the zone they were playing and their length. They were all good shots, all uncontested. Unfortunately they just didn’t go down.”
Barnes, Keene, Sam Richards, Nicole Hamblin, Amanda Castonguay, Kailee Newcomb and Amia Pelletier played their final game for the Phoenix. Spruce will showcase another quick, guard-oriented team in 2015-16, with Bessey’s daughter, Alex, and Emily Hogan leading the way.
“Hopefully if (the MPA) goes to five classes, we hear people saying our tournament is going to be in Augusta, which would be huge,” Bessey said.
Hall of Fame credentials
The Western D girls’ semifinal games Friday morning will feature two coaches recently inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame. Rangeley’s Heidi Deery and Vinalhaven’s Sandy Nelson both were among the class of inductees in 2013.
Deery is the only player in Maine to win a state title as a player and as a coach at the same school. She won as a Lakers player in 1984. During her 19 years as coach, she has won a pair of state titles in 1993 and 2004. Her Lakers have also won five regional championships and eight East-West Conference crowns. Her Lakers have been to the regional final seven times in the past nine years.
Rangeley has a semifinal rematch with Searsport in Friday’s 10 a.m. game. The Lakers beat the Vikings last year before losing to Forest Hills in the regional final.
Nelson is in her first year with Vinalhaven. Her team was the ninth-seed and features six freshmen and three seniors. The Vikings knocked off top-ranked Pine Tree in the quarterfinal and now play Richmond Friday. Vinalhaven lost to the Bobcats 32-28 and 41-26 in the regular season.
Nelson coached and taught in Central Massachusetts for 30 years at schools such as Leicester and David Prouty and won a state championship. She also won as a player, winning the Mass State Championship at Worcester St. She’s a member of both the Worcester St. and Leicester High Halls of Fame.
The principal at Vinalhaven also is no stranger to tourney basketball. Tim Kane was an assistant for many years during Dirigo’s championship run in Western C. His brother, Gavin, who now coaches at Mt. Blue, was among the New England Hall of Fame inductees in 2013.
Positive step
Monmouth coach Scott Wing badly wanted his Mustangs to reach the Western C quarterfinals this year. His goal wasn’t just for the sake of this year’s team.
“I’m pretty excited about the future,” Wing said. “I wanted to get back here this year, because I know we’re going to have a run of some teams that are going to get back. I don’t want the expectation to be just to make it to Augusta. I want the expectation to be to go beyond just making it to Augusta. I want to win some games here and hopefully become a threat every year.”
This was Monmouth’s second trip to the quarterfinals since losing in the Western C final to Madison in 2008. The Mustangs lost to Old Orchard in the first round two years ago.
The Mustangs have two seniors, Caroline Bonenfant and Jenna Davies, so Monmouth has a young and promising squad. Junior starters Sidney Wilson and Haley West will be back, as will freshman starting guard Tia Day. Monmouth had six freshmen on the squad this year and five juniors. It was a challenge to close the gap between classes, but this group pulled it off and set the tone for future seasons.
“When you mix six freshmen coming in, the seniors can either take that or leave it one way of the other,” Wing said. “They took those freshmen in and accepted them for what they were. They figured out they would help them a lot, and they did. They stepped up big. It was probably the most cohesive team I’ve ever coached. That’s a (reason for) how we played, even though we were so young.”
Pretty good run
With Edward Little’s loss to Bangor Wednesday, a number of careers ended for the Red Eddies. EL loses seven seniors from a team that went 14-4 before beating Mt. Blue and losing to the Rams. Those seniors had vital roles in the success of the Red Eddies in the last four years. They are: Molly Murray, Brooke Reynolds, Tianna Harriman, Eraleena Hairston, Calli Murray, Maegan Chartier and Nicole Ouellette.
“Our seniors had a great career here,” said EL coach Craig Jipson. “We’ve talked about that there were kids at EL that were great players that never played on this floor. My seniors played nine games at the Augusta Civic Center. That’s a real testament to them and the career that they’ve had.”
EL still has some returning talent back. Emily Jacques scored 21 in the loss to Bangor, while Sarah Hammond, Jordyn Reynolds, Karli Stubbs and Piper Norcross have shown great promise off the bench.
The Red Eddies produced a good effort against Bangor in the the semifinal. EL fell behind early and had to battle back. The lead was down to two points in the final minutes, but EL couldn’t finish the comeback.
“I really felt like we gave Bangor a hell of a run,” Jipson said. “We really showed up, especially in the second half.”
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