Winslow has been in the Eastern B girls basketball preliminary round three straight years. When the Black Raiders were at home in the prelims, they lost. When they were on the road, they won.
The pattern continued this week as No. 10 Winslow edged out seventh-seeded Nokomis. The Black Raiders’ reward is a quarterfinal game with No. 2 Presque Isle at 6:30 p.m., Friday at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
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Eastern B girls at a glance
Defending champ: Mt. Desert Island
Players to watch: Devin Fitzgibbons, Winslow; Heather Kervin, Winslow; Lauren Chadwick, Gardiner; Mary Toman, Gardiner; Sarah Phelps, MDI; Kelsey Shaw, MDI; Sierra Tapley, MDI; Hannah Graham, Presque Isle; Krystal Kingsbury, Presque Isle; Hannah Marks, Medomak Valley; Hannah Pease, Medomak Valley; Rachel Pease, Camden Hills; Charlotte Messer, Camden Hills; Maddie Bowman, Camden Hills; Emily Gould, Oceanside; Makenna Brooks, Oceanside; Claire Petersen, Hermon; Shelby Caron, Hermon
Matchup we’d like to see: We’re based in central Maine, so naturally we’d love to see Gardiner play Winslow. Presque Isle and Oceanside would also be a fun matchup. Presque Isle’s offense against Medomak’s junk defenses would be a good chess match to watch.
Team most likely to pull an upset: After beating John Bapst, Hermon could make some noise against Medomak Valley.
We’d be surprised if: It’s not MDI and Presque Isle in the regional final.
Championship prediction: MDI over Presque Isle.
“We’re a No. 10 seed,” Winslow coach Lindsey Welch said. “Anything can happen right now as long as we believe, and play as one — playing defense, and shooting the ball.”
The Eastern B girls tournament starts up at 5 p.m., Friday, with No. 3 Medomak Valley facing No. 11 Hermon. On Saturday. No. 4 Camden Hills takes on fifth-seeded Oceanside at 10:35 a.m., and No. 9 Gardiner plays top-ranked Mt. Desert Island at 3:05 p.m.
Three of those four matchups are teams that play in different conferences and thus haven’t played each other this season (Camden Hills vs. Oceanside is the exception). In the prelims, there were two meetings between Big East schools and Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference teams. The KVAC won both, with Camden Hills defeating Foxcroft in overtime, and Gardiner edging Ellsworth by six points.
While the KVAC has the edge so far, it’s important to note that neither Foxcroft nor Ellsworth has been able to compete with top seeds MDI and Presque Isle this season. While those two schools were at the top of the Big East all season, the KVAC was more of a hodgepodge. On any night, it seemed the game would come down to the final minute.
Winslow (11-8), for example, has now played eight straight games decided by six points or less. Presque Isle (16-2), on the other hand, has won 12 games by 25 points or more. The Wildcats, with Hannah Graham and Krystal Kingsbury leading the way, average 71.8 points per game, and Winslow hasn’t allowed anyone to score more than 50. The Black Raiders have been close with everyone thanks to a solid defense led by players like Sarah Wildes and Delaney Wood.
It’s the same theme in the matchup between Gardiner (8-11) and MDI (18-0). While Gardiner has been in a dogfight each night in the KVAC, the Trojans have won all but four games by at least 20 points.
“We’ve seen them play a couple times,” Gardiner coach Mike Gray said. “We know what they can do. (Their) key players have been key players for a couple years now. Once they’ve got their press working, that’s really when they look to get teams to throw the ball around and score points in a hurry.”
Gray said the Tigers have had presses thrown at them this winter, and at times they’ve handled that well.
“We need to take care of the ball,” Gray said. “When we handle teams’ pressure, we’ve been able to score. The other key is, on the other end, we’ve just got to finish. (Against Ellsworth) was a poor shooting night for us, and we were able to do enough other things to get us through.”
Medomak (14-4) has lost four games by a total of 20 points this season. The Panthers feature Hannah Marks, the KVAC B Coastal Player of the Year. Hermon comes in at just 9-10, but defeated John Bapst in the prelims after two regular season losses to the Crusaders.
Camden Hills and Oceanside are both 14-5. Camden Hills won both meetings during the regular season, 56-54 and 50-46. Both Charlotte Messer and Rachel Pease made first-team all-KVAC Coastal for Camden.
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
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