The Oxford Hills boys basketball team is 12-3 and is riding a five-game win streak.
In a Class AA North region that is crowded at the top, the Vikings’ only losses have come to Edward Little two times and one to Portland.
“As a coach, it sucks because every night you can get beat,” Oxford Hills coach Scott Graffam said. “All those teams have good players, one or two at least, even the teams that struggle can still hit 10 to 15 3-pointers a game. We played Hampden and they hit 10 threes on us, Windham made 13 on us. What do you do? That’s the problem as a coach. In this league, we’ve been fortunate because we haven’t been upset, but I don’t expect to roll into any game and have an easy game.”
Oxford Hills’ Tanner Bickford reaches for the ball as Portland’s Wani Donato brings the ball up court during a game in Paris on Jan. 27. Oxford Hills won 45-40. Brewster Burns photo
Graffam said that every game Oxford Hills — second in the Heal points standings in AA North behind Edward Little — expects to get the other team’s best effort.
However, that usually hasn’t been enough to beat the Vikings, thanks, in large part, to the consistent scoring of Teigan Pelletier, Cole Pulkkinen and Colby Dillingham. Now a fourth scorer is pitching in and making Oxford Hills even more formidable.
“Teigan, Cole and Dillingham have been pretty consistent,” Graffam said. “Now, Elias Soehren has really improved his offensive input into our offense. He’s been a key for us because he passes so well, but now he can score well, too. We’ve played a majority of our season without Tanner Bickford for various reasons but now he’s back and gives us another person teams have to deal with. Colby is 6-10 and is rebounding very well and is also a very good free-throw shooter.
“Those three, Pulkkinen, Pelletier and Dillingham, average around 40 between them. Add in Soehren and we’re almost at 50. That means the other players need to score 12 and we’ll be in good shape.”
The Vikings have earned recent wins over Deering — which defeated Edward Little last week and Lewiston early in the season — and Bangor, and also a redemption win over Portland.
Oxford Hills beat Bangor in a game with 150 combined points and then the next game won a game in the 40s over Portland. Winning with 81 and then 45 points proves to Graffam that the Vikings can win in multiple ways.
Some offensive changes have helped them round into a versatile team that can win both types of games.
“After we struggled against EL and Portland, we had to diversify our offense a bit,” Graffam said. “We put in a bunch of set plays, changed a couple sets and the kids are good at it. We have a lot of football players and they’re used to running plays, so that helps. Last week, we played Bangor and won 81-69 and then won (45-40) in a real grind-out game. My experience has been unless you’re a really talented team, you can win one of those games. Seldom you have a team that can win both those. I am kind of encouraged that they can grind out wins and score a lot of points in wins, so that’s been a good thing.”
MT. BLUE HITTING STRIDE AT RIGHT TIME
Eva Stevens has scored 22 points in each of the past two games for the Mt. Blue girls basketball team. That included a 53-37 win over Leavitt and a 38-30 win over Nokomis.
Stevens has led the Cougars in scoring, but coach Zac Conlogue said a change at point guard has helped turn the tides for Mt. Blue.
“The key for us has been Eryn Parlin, we moved her to point guard,” Conlogue said. “She’s our tallest girl at 5-11 and that’s been the difference. She’s averaging 4.5 assists a game and we put her on the other team’s best player, as well. She’s usually guarding a point or shooting guard. She’s really been the one that has stepped up. She doesn’t score a ton, but her defense and passing is great.”
Mt. Blue’s Eva Stevens puts up a floater between Leavitt’s Caitlyn McCoy, left, and Katie Blouin, right, during Tuesday night’s game in Turner. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
Moving Parlin to the point guard spot creates matchup problems with teams.
“I’d say we go small, but we are playing five guards,” Conlogue said. “We’re pretty tall, they’re all 5-9 to 5-11. They have length and are fast and a lot of teams have to go all guards against us, and then we have the height advantage with a 5-11 point guard.”
The Cougars are 5-10, but have their full team back with the Class A North playoffs approaching.
After a bout with mono that went through multiple players on the team, then COVID cases, Mt. Blue has a full team again with a few games left in the regular season. The team has its sights on the postseason.
“We’re excited for our last three games. We know the last three games are like playoff games and we are trying to get to the fifth or sixth spot,” Conlogue said. “I think it’s been six or seven years since Mt. Blue made it to the (Augusta) Civic Center, so they want to make it there and they know how important these games are.”
LEWISTON CONTINUES STREAK WITH TRIPLE-OT WIN
The Blue Devil boys (11-4) are coming off a big triple-overtime win over Bangor on Tuesday (72-70) and a 58-35 win against Windham on senior night Thursday.
A 3-pointer by Donovan Jackson at the buzzer of the second overtime that would have given Lewiston the win was overturned to a long two-pointer, tying the game and forcing a third overtime period.
With four seconds left in the third overtime, Malik Foster scored a tip-in to win the game for the Blue Devils. Those play by Foster and Donovan Jackson are examples of the key contributions those two have made over Lewiston’s current eight-game winning streak.
“Donovan Jackson has put up a string of games that have been unbelievable,” Lewiston coach Elgin Physic said. “He’s kind of the forgotten guy. You hear about Malik, Dave (Omasombo), Yusuf (Dakane), but Donovan has taken the role of coming up with big plays. Malik, obviously, came in with a big play with the tip-in. That’s another guy in Malik that has elevated his game. We are a good team, and so we are going to try to be great and see what happens.”
Physic said Foster and Omasombo lead more on the court, but that Jackson is the vocal leader.
“It comes naturally for him to be vocal,” Physic said. “He has come out with the right spot at the right time.”
Lewiston’s Donovan Jackson looks to make a pass during the first half of a Jan. 25 game against Portland in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
Forwards Caed Langley, Eli Bigelow and Ring Ring have all stepped up recently and have found their roles for a rolling Lewiston squad.
“We won the last eight because of the third guy stepping up,” Physic said. “Caed Langley and Eli Bigelow are our bigs and you’re going to get the same thing from them every night. They’re going to bust their butt, rebound, and they’ve elevated their game, as well. Ring has come out with a lot of energy. He’s a big part of our defense and he’s done well. He’s done well doing the basic things: cutting to the right spot, running the floor, catching the ball, hitting layups. He’s elevated his game.”
RAIDERS FINDING WAYS TO WIN
The Oak Hill girls team is 7-8 this season and has gone back and forth with wins and losses for the last nine games. Raiders coach Dale Gamage called it a “roller coaster” of a season.
“We’ve had some people get injured and of course we have a small squad, as it is,” Gamage said. “We’ve done very well against a lot of the competitive teams, but they out-run us. It gets to be a pretty short bench when you’ve got to run hard all the time.”
Gamage said he has five seniors, two juniors, a sophomore and three freshmen. The depth isn’t quite where it needs to be, but he said the Raiders’ defense has been a bright spot.
“The freshmen are new and it’s quite a bit to throw them in the mix of that stuff,” Gamage said. “I think our defense has come along pretty good, I think we’re working as a team and have definitely improved. Getting the ball inside has come along pretty well.”
The Raiders sit in eighth place in the Class B South Heal points standings with three games remaining.
“They’ve all done a good job setting into a role, but Gabby Chessie really works hard all the time. She brings the ball up and has done a really good job for us all year,” Gamage said. “Amara Denis has done a really good job, Brianna Dumais has done a good job and they all have, but Gabby has led us.”
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