STAFF REPORTS

Cony High School’s Mia Diplock, Hall-Dale High School’s Carylanne Wolfington and Skowhegan Area High School’s Amanda Johnson were all named semifinalists for Miss Maine Basketball on Wednesday, while Mt. Blue High School’s Cam Sennick was named a semifinalist for Mr. Maine Basketball.

The award is given to the top senior female and male basketball players of the year.

Other semifinalists for Miss Basketball are: Alexa Coulumbe of McAuley; Ella Ramonas of Deering; Amanda Hotham of Fort Fairfield; Adrianna Newton of Leavitt; Alaina Vose of Medomak Valley; Selana Lorrey of Traip; and Megan Gribbin of Windham.

The other semifinalists for Mr. Basketball are: Patrick Stewart of Bangor; Bobby Cote of Biddeford; Cole Libby of Bonny Eagle; Louie Distasio of Cheverus; Cody St. Germain of Dirigo; Christian McCue of Hampden; Jordan Hersom of Leavitt; Josh Britten of Yarmouth; and Liam Langaas of York.

The semifinalists will be pared down to three finalists after the state championship tournament and the winners will be announced March 9.

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Valley High School started Wednesday’s 54-46 Western D quarterfinal loss to rival Forest Hills in a 2-3 zone. The Cavaliers stayed in the defense for most of the first quarter, then switched back to a man-to-man defense.

The Cavaliers did a nice job in both defense of limiting Forest Hills’ star Evan Worster early in the game, but Brandon and Derick Ouellette and Matt Turner made key contributions to help Forest Hills jump out to a 14-12 lead after the first quarter. Worster scored four points in the first quarter, as did Brandon Ouellette, while Turner and Brandon Ouellette each had three.

“The Turner boys, Brandon Ouellette, Derick Ouellette, those guys all hurt us,” Valley coach Wade Morrill said.

Josh West drew the primary defensive assignment against Worster, who surpassed 1,000 points this season as a junior and scored 51 points in the regional semifinals.

West and the Cavaliers had success against Worster in the regular season, holding him to 11 and 14 points in a pair of victories. Wednesday, Worster became more aggressive in the second half and 14 of his 22 points before fouling out late in the fourth quarter.

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“Josh and him have been going at each other since the sixth or seventh grade, so they are no strangers to each other,” Morrill said. “One of them will get the upper hand and I think Evan may have taken it as a personal challenge today.”

Worster praised West. “They have always run West on me and, to give him props, I think he is the best defender I’ve seen all year,” Worster said.

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Ruth Towne does a lot of things for the Seacoast Christian girls basketball team.

“She can block some shots and she’s a great rebounder,” Seacoast coach Charlie Johnson said.

But a scorer? Not until Tuesday morning.

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Towne, a 5-foot-9 senior center, scored a game-high 26 points in a 60-34 victory over Forest Hills in a Western D quarterfinal game. She also grabbed 13 rebounds.

“She hasn’t had one of those games all year,” Johnson said. “Her offense hasn’t been that good. This was one of her best games.”

It helped, of course, that Towne enjoyed a considerable height advantage over the Tigers — who’s tallest players stand 5 feet, 6 inches.

Still, it was quite a breakout performance.

“We’ve been spreading the scoring around,” she said, “but this feels pretty good.”

No. 4 Seacoast will next meet top-seeded Richmond in a semifinal game at 11:30 a.m. today.


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