Hall-Dale boys basketball surges in 2nd half to beat Madison

Hall-Dale’s Karter Eldridge, left, steals the ball from Madison’s Tyshawn Hall. (Rich Abrahamson/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image

MADISON — There’s still more than two-thirds of the Maine high school boys basketball season to go as the penultimate weekend of December arrives. If one Mountain Valley Conference’s team’s résumé has stood out, though, it’s the Hall-Dale Bulldogs.

Hall-Dale entered Friday already with wins over Spruce Mountain and Mt. Abram under its belt. The Bulldogs added another impressive victory at Madison Area Memorial High, overcoming a halftime deficit with 42 second-half points to defeat the hosts 67-60 in this battle of Bulldogs.

“We’ve got a tough schedule, and every night is going to be difficult for us,” said Hall-Dale coach Chris Ranslow. “Whether it’s Spruce, whether it’s Madison or whether it’s Valley next, we’ve got to be ready to play, and so far, we’ve come out ready.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Tayshaun Cleveland and Karter Eldridge took over. Madison had the edge for most of the first half and took a 28-25 lead into the second. Yet Hall-Dale (5-0) got nine points from Cleveland and eight from Eldridge in the third, with the former adding two emphatic blocks on defense.

“(Tayshaun) commanded the inside in the second half of that basketball game, both offensively and defensively,” Ranslow said. “He’s got such a strong base, and he always gets himself reoriented, which is a really, really hard thing to do. He’ll jump, he’ll square himself, and then he shoots, and that’s really rare at this level.”

• Hall-Dale got open looks around the basket and finished them. Whether it was through well-executed screens, fast breaks or just good passing, the visitors produced countless wide-open layups that they didn’t let go to waste.

“We knew that our size was definitely going to be an advantage today, so our goal was to pound it inside,” Eldridge said. “I thought we did that pretty well, especially in the second half.”

WHAT IT MEANS

• Hall-Dale is the lone unbeaten team in both the MVC and Class C South. The Bulldogs host Valley of Class S in an intriguing crossover clash Tuesday before closing out their 2025 slate against Winthrop on Dec. 29 at the Augusta Civic Center.

• Madison (3-1) suffered its first loss of the season, despite four 3-pointers (including three in the final 20 seconds) from sophomore Jacob Linkletter. Still, the Bulldogs are one of the top teams in Class D South, something they can prove when they face Mt. Abram on Dec. 30 at the ACC.

“These are the games we want to play because they help us go out and get better,” said Madison coach Jason Furbush. “If we win a game by 40, that doesn’t help us prepare for the tournament; playing close games that help us get better every night does, and the MVC gives us that.”

NOTABLE QUOTABLES

• “When we went down, we started gambling a little bit more. Our rotations weren’t quite where they needed to be, and our depth without our starting point guard (Brayden Furbush) hurt us a little bit. We were in gamble mode, and that caused us to give up some layups that we usually don’t give up.” — Jason Furbush

• “I noticed (Linkletter’s) play style, and I knew he liked to take a little step and lean backward on his little floater over the top, so I timed my jump and blocked him.” — Tayshaun Cleveland