5 stories to follow in the Maine high school girls basketball tourney
By Larry Mahoney, Bangor Daily News Staff
There is no shortage of storylines for the Maine high school basketball tournaments each season.
It is a special time of year where teams get to play in front of thousands of energetic fans at the state’s major indoor arenas as they seek a legacy-creating state championship.
The high school girls tournaments in the North’s five classes (AA, A, B, C and D) feature plenty of intriguing plots headlined by a possible matchup between future University of Maine teammates.
Here are five stories worth watching.
Cheverus’ Maddie Fitzpatrick vs. Bangor’s Emmie Streams in AA North.
Streams will join the University of Maine program in the fall while Fitzpatrick will head to Orono in 2024.
If they win their quarterfinal games later this week, they will meet in the semis.
They are both Bangor Daily News All-Maine Schoolgirl guards. Fitzpatrick was a first-team selection a year ago and Streams was a second-team pick. They currently rank one-two in assists in Class AA North as Streams is averaging 6.6 per game and Fitzpatrick is at 5.1.
They are two completely different types of guards.
Fitzpatrick is 5-foot-10 with a long wingspan who can score from anywhere, as shown by her 17.7 points per game average. She is a guard who has the capability to post up or hit the outside jumper, including a 3-pointer.
Streams is in the 5-3, 5-4 range and is extremely quick and more of a distributor than a scorer, although she can put up 10 points per game by penetrating the lane or hitting a three. She was the AA North defender of the year last season.
Class C North is loaded.
The Class C North tournament features three 17-1 teams in Dexter, Penobscot Valley and Hodgdon who have had a varying degree of success in the past.
Beginning in the 2002-03 season, Dexter began a run of five consecutive regional championships and two state championships (2004 and 2006). The Tigers’ next regional title was in 2017 when they lost to Monmouth Academy 46-37 in the state championship game.
Penobscot Valley of Howland was a regional titlist in 2019 but lost to Boothbay Region 33-25 in the state game. It was PVHS’ first regional C title since 1986.
Penobscot Valley lost in the regional final to Stearns of Millinocket 32-30 a year ago after ousting Dexter in the semifinals 28-15.
Hodgdon hasn’t won a regional championship since 1980 when the Hawks beat Dirigo of Dixfield 81-57 in the state title game. It was their second in a row as they had beaten Wells 58-40 the previous year after losing to Dirigo 56-43 in the 1978 state title contest.
Could this finally be Old Town’s year?
Heather Richards’ Old Town Coyotes went 18-0 to earn the top seed in Class B North.
Old Town has never won a state championship, and its only regional title occurred in 1980 when it was in Class A. Old Town lost to Westbrook in the state final 88-66.
Despite graduating three starters off last year’s team that reached the regional final before losing to Hermon 45-30, the Coyotes have parlayed intense in-your-face defense that has resulted in 13.6 steals per game and balanced scoring into an undefeated campaign so far.
They have three players averaging in double figures in reigning AA North Player of the Year Saige Evans (17.3), Taylor Loring (11.9) and Makayla Emerson (10.5) and another in Gabby Cody who is at 9.6.
Cody leads in assists (3.3) followed by Emerson (2.9), Evans is the leading rebounder (11 rpg) and freshman Loring is top in steals (3.1).
After four years without reaching the postseason (2015-18), the Coyotes will be making their fourth consecutive appearance and have gone a little further each year, reaching the quarterfinals in 2019, the semis in 2020 and the final last year.
Top-two Class D seeds can fill the cylinder.
If top seed and defending state champ Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook and second seed Wisdom of St. Agatha meet in the regional championship game for the second year in a row, it could very well be a high-scoring affair.
Wisdom enters the tournament averaging 67.6 points per game while Southern Aroostook is at 65.8.
Each team has a pair of 1,000-point scorers, so to have four 1,000-point scorers on the floor at the same time would be a rarity.
Madison Russell and Cami Shields have scored more than 1,000 apiece for Southern Aroostook while Lilly Roy and Olivia Ouellette are Wisdom’s 1,000-point scorers.
For those wondering why two Aroostook County D teams don’t play each other during the regular season, they aren’t exactly neighbors.
Dyer Brook and St. Agatha are 107.2 miles apart.
Fourteen teams got into the tourney with losing records.
Fourteen teams qualified for the five North tournaments despite having losing records — four in 19-team Class D, three apiece in AA and A, and two in B and C.
Among the 68 schools in the five classes, 31 had winning records and there were seven with .500 records.
Old Town, Gardiner and Wisdom were the only teams to go 18-0 and the three C schools (Dexter, Penobscot Valley and Hodgdon) and AA Oxford Hills of South Paris were the only ones to go 17-1.