Prior to his team’s Wednesday night win at Richmond, Valley head coach Luke Hartwell anticipated a tough game.
“That’s what you look for. You look for tournament-type atmospheres going into either prelims or Augusta next week,” Hartwell said.
Valley won at Richmond, 51-45, to kick off a three games in as many days stretch for the Cavaliers to end the regular season. Valley (12-4) was set to host North Haven (2-12) on Thursday, before hosting Hyde (14-2) of Bath on Friday. Wednesday’s win over the Bobcats jumped Valley to third place in the Western Class D Heal Point standings, and may have secured a bye to the regional quarterfinals for the Cavs. The top four teams in the region avoid a preliminary round game and head right to the Augusta Civic Center. A win over Hyde could vault Valley into the No. 2 seed.
“I told the boys, ‘We can control our own destiny. If we can win these last three games, we don’t have to worry about the top four. We’ll get there.’ The most important thing is to get that direct shot to Augusta,” Hartwell said.
Valley graduated five seniors from the team that won the Western Class D title last season. Even with a strong record, this has been a rebuilding season, Hartwell said.
“We’re starting to develop a new identity for our team. It’s completely different than last year. We can still get a lot better defensively,” Hartwell said. “We haven’t developed that killer instinct yet, when we get ahead of teams, to put them away. I’ve liked the progress, but these next three nights are going to test us mentally and physically.”
• • •
Madison coach Jason Furbursh called his team’s 56-45 win over Boothbay on Wednesday its most complete game of the season. The win gave Madison a 15-3 record, and now the Bulldogs, likely the No. 5 seed in the Western C tournament, wait to see who it will host in a preliminary round game. Furbush expects to play the winner of Friday’s game between Telstar and Mountain Valley.
The key to beating Boothbay (15-2) was defense and rebounding, Furbush said. After allowing 17 points to the Seahawks in the first quarter, Madison held Boothbay to 28 points the rest of the game.
“From the second quarter on, we rebounded,” Furbush said. “They scored 17 in the first quarter, and a lot of it was on second and third shot opportunities.”
Madison’s Jared Miller and Chase Malloy played strong defense on Boothbay’s Julian Aponte and John Hepburn, respectively, and sophomore Mitch Jarvais had a double-double in what Furbush called his best game of the season.
• • •
One of the hottest teams in the state entering the playoffs is Maine Central Institute (12-6). The Huskies closed the regular season with a 50-47 win over Nokomis on Thursday night, giving them an 8-1 record over the second half of the season.
MCI’s strong second half includes a 52-42 over then-No. 1 ranked Winslow. If close games are an indicator, the Huskies are ready for the playoffs. Six of MCI’s 12 wins were by five or fewer points.
The Huskies will enter the Eastern Class B tournament as either the No. 6 or No. 7 seed, and host a preliminary round game next week.
• • •
The Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B boys basketball championship game matchup is set. Winslow will take on Medomak Valley, at 5 p.m. Saturday at Cony High School in Augusta.
As of Thursday afternoon, Medomak Valley was the top seed, but the teams could change spots depending on the results of Thursday night games. Both teams entered Thursday with 15-2 records.
• • •
Around the state: After a 15-0 start, Portland dropped two games in a row, to rivals Cheverus and South Portland. Even with the losses, the Bulldogs are in first place in Western Class A… The fight for the last playoff spot in Eastern Class D will come down to the final day of the season. Central Aroostook lead Wisdom by .0442 points for the 15th and final spot in the tournament. Central Aroostook closes the regular season against Katahdin, while Wisdom plays East Grand. Central Aroostook and Wisdom split a pair of regular season games… Thursday night’s game between Poland and Gray-New Gloucester was essentially a playoff game. Poland held a three-point lead over Gray-New Gloucester for the final playoff spot in Western Class B.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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