It’s tough to say if the Gardiner Area High School girls basketball team’s upset of No.1 and previously undefeated Mt. Desert Island is the biggest upset in Maine high school basketball tournament history. The Tigers’ huge win on Saturday at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor is definitely in the biggest upsets discussion, though.

Gardiner won the game, 62-50, and led by more than 20 points in the third quarter. The Tigers did to MDI what the Trojans did to opponents the entire regular season. The Trojans won seven games by at least 30 points. MDI’s average margin of victory was a tick over 27.5 points. Gardiner is a team that won seven games in the regular season. Gardiner’s average margin of victory, 15.5 points, is skewed by a pair of blowout wins. Three of the Tigers’ wins were by seven or fewer points. Gardiner had to win a preliminary-round game at Ellsworth just to advance to the Eastern Class B quarterfinals.

Additional Images

Staff photo by Michael G. Seamans Gardiner Area High School head coach Mike Gray watches his team play Mount Desert Island High School in the first half during the Eastern Class B girls basketball quarterfinals Saturday at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. The Tigers won 62-50.

Ellsworth, by the way, lost twice to MDI in the regular season, by 29 and 34 points.

Every time we see a No. 1 seed go down in the quarterfinals, particularly one that was as dominant as MDI throughout the regular season, we’re amazed. Maybe we shouldn’t be. Top seeds are eliminated by and eight or nine seed in the quarterfinals more often than you think.

In the last 10 years, a No. 1 seed was knocked out of the regional girls basketball tournament in the quarterfinals nine times. Most of these upsets are close games, like Dirigo’s 46-43 win over St. Dominic in the Western Class C quarterfinals last season.

In the 2013 Eastern Class A girls tournament, No. 8 Cony beat top-seeded Edward Little, 52-35, in a quarterfinal game. Cony was 11-7 in the regular season, though, and Edward Little was 15-3. On paper, this wasn’t the mismatch Gardiner vs. MDI was perceived to be.

In 2005, the Hampden boys won the Class A state championship after entering the Eastern Class A tournament at the nine seed. The Broncos beat No. 1 Bangor and No. 2 Oxford Hills in the regional tournament before beating Deering, the No. 3 seed in the West, in the state championship game.

The biggest upset in tournament history still might belong to the Lawrence boys. In 1986, the Bulldogs beat Waterville in the Eastern Class A final, 56-53 in overtime. This came soon after Waterville beat Lawrence by 50 points at the end of the regular season. While Waterville was the defending state champion, this game might lose points on the upset scale if only because it happened in the regional final. Lawrence already had won a pair of very close tournament games, and was playing with renewed confidence by the time it got another crack at the Purple Panthers.

MDI and Gardiner fans experienced both sides of the upset emotional roller coaster on Saturday. Shortly before the MDI girls season came to an unexpected halt, the boys came up with their second surprising win of the week when they beat No. 4 Gardiner, 57-53, in the Eastern Class B boys quarterfinal. On Wednesday, No. 12 MDI beat No. 5 Ellsworth to earn spot at the Cross Insurance Center.

In the next couple of days, 10 more top seeds will play in the Maine high school basketball quarterfinals, hoping to not be another upset victim. For now, we’ll put Gardiner’s win over MDI at the top of the list, simply for how easy the Tigers made it look, even though we know it wasn’t easy at all.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM

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