Editor’s note: The Sun Journal sports staff voted on the area’s top sports stories of 2023 and will be counting down the top 10 through the end of the year.

The Oxford Hills girls and Dirigo boys were not to be denied. Denying the Spruce Mountain girls took the full 32 minutes of the final game of the season.

Another exciting Maine high school basketball tournament had thrilling finishes, especially for the three Sun Journal-area teams that reached state finals. The Oxford Hills girls and Dirigo boys added gold balls to their schools’ trophy case, while the Phoenix became Spruce Mountain’s first basketball team to earn a regional championship.

One of those teams was seeking a repeat, another redemption, and the third blazed a trail for its school and its conference.

REPEAT LIKE UNDERDOGS

The Dirigo boys were coming off an underdog run to the 2022 Class C state title, which was won with a last-second 3-pointer by star Charlie Houghton. They returned all but one player from that team and entered the 2022-23 season knowing that they were the team that all of C South and Class C were chasing.

The Cougars clearly were the favorites and definitely not underdogs, but they maintained an underdog mentality.

“Yeah, we’re the favorites, but we have to prove that we’re the favorites, not just think that we’re going to make it,” forward Dakota Tompkins said before the state final. “We got to show that we want it, that we will.”

Anything that could be a source of motivation, they used as motivation.

“It’s just, we needed an edge because we’ve had success,” said Houghton, who was the 2023 Sun Journal All-Region Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

Not winning the 8-man Small School football state title the previous fall? That motivated the basketball team. Their one loss of the season, to Monmouth by 15 points in January, motivated them. Hearing postseason preview episode of a podcast? More motivation. Same goes for helping Airick Richard, a Mountain Valley transfer, win his first state title.

“We kept proving everybody wrong, even though we were the defending state champs,” guard Trenton Hutchinson said. “We took everything we heard to heart and went for it.”

Dirigo earned Class C South’s top seed, but their postseason path was anything but easy. After dispatching Madison, they had to face Mt. Abram for the fourth time (twice during the regular season and in the MVC championship game) and then Monmouth, the only team that defeated the Cougars.

In the regional semifinals, Dirigo overcame a fourth-quarter deficit for the fourth time to beat Mt. Abram for the fourth time. In the C South final, the Cougars started to pull away in the second quarter and won by 17 points.

Houghton helped Dirigo start strong in the state final against Calais, scoring 12 of his 24 points in the opening quarter. Then he and Hutchinson (17 points) combined for 12 fourth-quarter points to help the Cougars finish off the Blue Devils and win 65-58 and repeat as state champions.

“This feeling right now, just having that feeling again,” Houghton said. “This was what we were looking for the whole year.”

He added: “Last year was the first time, and this time is more satisfying, going out as state champs.”

VIKINGS BACK ON TOP

The Oxford Hills girls have been fixtures in the Class AA North regional final, reaching each one since 2016. That included state championships in 2019 and 2020. Following a year without postseason play due to COVID-19, the Vikings fell in the 2022 regional final to Cheverus, which went on to win the state title.

Oxford Hills and Cheverus were again the favorites in the region and Class AA in 2022-23. They split their regular season meetings, both teams winning at home, and were clearly on a collision course to meet again in the 2023 AA North final.

When they did, the Vikings had their signature moment.

The Stags scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to take a 41-29 lead with 6:39 remaining in regulation.

Things looked dim for the Vikings, but they were undaunted.

“We knew that we could still win,” guard Molly Corbett said. “We had that mindset that we were still going to win, we were still going to push. We knew we could still do this, no matter how much time was left.”

The Vikings started to press more aggressively, and Sierra Carson led them on a 9-0 run over the next two minutes that got them within three points, 41-38.

“When we were down 10 in the fourth, we finally just said, ‘We need to cause as much chaos as possible,’” Oxford Hills coach Nate Pelletier said. “And that’s where (Sierra) thrives, in that sort of chaotic environment where she can use her athleticism, and she did.”

Carson, the Sun Journal Player of the Year, scored five points in the first three quarters. In the fourth and beyond, she added 24 points.

That included six in the first overtime, during which Oxford Hills’ two tallest players, Ella Pelletier and Maddy Miller, fouled out.

The much taller Stags went up four in the second overtime. Carson made a free throw and then set up Tristen Derenburger for two 3-pointers, one to tie the game and the other for the lead. Carson then sealed the 68-63 double-overtime win with four free throws.

“The one thing I know about my team and these girls is that they will never give up,” Nate Pelletier said.

Oxford Hills’ crowning moment came nine days later in the AA final against Gorham.

The Vikings struggled to make shots in the opening quarter, and the Rams took a 14-7 lead early in the second. Carson and Ella Pelletier scored the next seven points to tie the game, and Derenburger made a 3 to put Oxford Hills in the lead.

The Vikings added five more points for a 15-0 run, and they never looked back.

“We just went on a huge run, and it just never stopped,” said Derenburger, who drained an AA final-record six 3-pointers, including five in the second half.

Oxford Hills outscored Gorham 40-8 after halftime to roll to a 62-25 win and its third state championship in four tournaments.

“It was everyone contributing their role and more,” Carson said. “Like, what we started from the beginning of the season up until now, what we’ve worked on, everyone did that in this game.

“The defense only let them score eight points (in the second half). That’s amazing. And that’s a team effort. And then just finding those open shooters, like Tristen; Maddy rebounding; everyone did amazing. It’s not just one person, it’s a whole team.”

PHOENIX BATTLE TO THE END

Merely reaching the Class B South final was a significant accomplishment for the Spruce Mountain girls.

It was the first basketball regional final for the school, which was established when Jay and Livermore Falls merged into Spruce Mountain High School in 2011, and the first appearance in the B South title game by a Mountain Valley Conference team during that span.

Impressive feat, but the Phoenix weren’t satisfied.

Aubrey Kachnovich scored 21 of her 22 points in the second half of the regional B South title game, and Spruce Mountain scored half of its points in the final quarter to take down defending state champ Oceanside — and end the Mariners’ 53-game win streak — with a 56-47 victory.

“It is almost like (Kachnovich) got to the point of enough is enough,” Spruce Mountain coach Zach Keene said. “But the pace she started to play with, the confidence she started playing with, it showed in what she did. It was a great time to do it.”

The Phoenix became only the third of the current MVC schools to reach the Class B championship game, joining Rumford (which later merged with Mexico to become Mountain Valley High School) in 1988 and Livermore Falls, which won the 1976 Class B title.

In the state title game against Ellsworth, the Phoenix struggled through a frustrating first three quarters. They couldn’t get an offensive rhythm and trailed 51-33 early in the fourth.

It wasn’t their day, and despite their determination, it didn’t seem like it was going to be their day.

Their determination won out, though. The team’s top two scorers, Olivia Mastine and Jaydn Pingree, led Spruce Mountain back in the final quarter.

“They refused to lay down, which meant nobody else could lay down,” Keene said.

The Phoenix scored 11 straight points, and after an Ellsworth basket they scored nine more unanswered points to go ahead 53-52.

They led 56-54 before Ellsworth scored the final three points, including a free throw by Megan Jordan with 10.6 seconds left that gave the Eagles a 57-56 victory and the state title.

The Phoenix fell one point short but proved themselves by winning the regional title and by battling through absolute frustration in the state final. They showed that Spruce Mountain can be a contender and that the MVC, a largely Class C conference, can be a force in Class B.

“That’s one of the greatest things about them, you can never count them out,” Keene said. “We told them, you got to fight. Things aren’t perfect right now, you’ve got to fight, and they did exactly what they had to do to put themselves in position.

“Ellsworth literally just made one more play than we did, and it happens sometimes.”

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