Caribou’s Ethan Holdsworth, right, drives to the basket as Maranacook’s Timothy Worster, center, and Cash McClure defend during the Class B state championship game at Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on Feb. 28. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel Buy this Photo
The pandemic stay-at-home orders have been no problem for Kyle Corrigan. Not from an entertainment standpoint, anyway.
When the Caribou High boys basketball coach has time on his hands, it’s a good bet he’s giving the Class B championship game between his Vikings and the Maranacook Black Bears another watch.
“I’ve watched that game, I’m not going to lie, probably 15 to 20 times,” he said.
It’d be hard to find a more exciting game: Two uptempo teams pushing the pace, fighting through two overtimes, and then needing a last-second basket to decide what ended up as a 73-71 Caribou victory – the program’s second straight title.
Those factors alone would have made it a game to remember. Then add that Maranacook forced overtime by erasing a seven-point Caribou lead with under a minute to go in regulation, and that Caribou trailed late in the second overtime before rallying for the victory.
The drama adds up to our choice as 2019-20 Varsity Maine Boys Game of the Year.
“(That was) definitely the best game I’ve ever been a part of,” said Vikings senior Parker Deprey, who scored 15 points and assisted on the winning basket by his brother, Sawyer, who had 22 points. “The intensity was insane.”
It didn’t feel like it would be that way at first. Caribou took command of a close game in the second quarter and raced out to a 32-21 lead at halftime. The Vikings knew, though, that the Black Bears weren’t going away.
“At halftime, we told the guys, ‘They’re way too good to let us bury them,'” Corrigan said.
He was right. Maranacook caught fire, hitting six 3-pointers in the third quarter to narrow the gap to 47-44. Caribou still held a 60-53 lead with 40 seconds left, but Cash McClure – who scored 12 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter – hit a pair of free throws and his fifth 3-pointer of the game to cut the deficit to two. Then Tim Worster made two free throws to send the game to overtime.
“Of course, you get kind of scared, and you go, ‘Uh oh, this doesn’t look good,'” McClure said. “We just knew we couldn’t give up, especially in the state game, and after everything we’d been through.”
One overtime wasn’t enough to decide the outcome. In the second overtime, it was Caribou’s turn to perform an escape act. Maranacook had a two-point lead and the ball with under 30 seconds to go, but Parker Deprey blocked, then converted a three-point play to put the Vikings up 71-70.
McClure tied the game with a free throw. After a timeout, Parker Deprey got the inbounds pass, brought the ball down the right sideline and flipped it back inside to his brother, who caught it and laid it in as time expired.
The play required some improvisation. The original plan was for Parker Deprey to look for Alex Bouchard.
“It was a bit of a broken play,” Corrigan said. “But we wanted the ball in Parker’s hands so that if it did get broken, he had a chance to help us win.”
“Everything was fast forward until the ball was in the air on Sawyer’s shot,” Parker Deprey said. “I ran back on defense. I didn’t realize there was no time left.”
It didn’t take him long to find out.
“The next day, a bunch of people were telling me, ‘You know, that could be one of the best high school games ever,'” Corrigan said. “And I was like, ‘You know, that’s true.'”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
