PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) -Friday kicked off the MPA High School Basketball Tournament at the cross insurance center. 4 class b teams took to the court as the battle for the gold ball commences. Rene Cloukey is in Bangor and has the details.
Rene Cloukey Standup:” Tournament 2023 is now underway, it’s started-on Friday afternoon, Ellsworth, and MDI meeting for the third time
And the seedings held true in the first game of the tournament. The 3rd ranked Ellsworth Eagles raining threes led by Morgan Clifford who had three big ones in the first half, Ellsworth had a built up a 20-point lead in the third quarter and they advance with a victory over mdi. 68-33 the final.
And the Caribou Vikings look to advance to the semifinals for the first time in over 15 years, they were taking on Foxcroft Academy. Vikings came out on fire in this one as they were able to use the inside game and score in transition as they put 22 points up in the first quarter and that was enough to give them the lead over the Foxcroft academy ponies at that time, they ended up with only 12. and then the Vikings just continued to pour it on, thanks to the play of Madelynn Deprey, Deprey ended up with 28 points and Liv Adams ended up with 11. The Caribou Vikings advance to the semifinals where they’ll take on Ellsworth, they win the game by a score of 68-39.
Carly Morrow, Caribou Senior:” Plainly was just coming up just as hard as we could, we really wanted to come out strong, start with our defense. Coach always says defense is key, if we don’t come out hard then, we better get back, but we just came out as best as we could and i think it worked for us”.
Madelynn Deprey, Caribou Sophomore:” Yeah I mean we know we had a lot of potential, but it was just if we could; we knew we had potential we just had to work hard and still”.
Kayla Brown, Caribou Coach:” It feels great for us, this is the first quarterfinal game caribou girls have won in a long time and were still a fairly young team so to come out strong like that from the beginning was really important for us, just super proud the way the girls focus and came ready to play”.
And the Caribou Vikings took on the Orono Red Riots in the boys first quarterfinal game, Orono put 32 points on the board to double up on the Caribou Vikings at the half, Vikings tried to make the comeback in the second half, but they come up short and lose by a score of 50-40, Pierce Walston led the way for the Orono red riots, he had 17 points, also ending in double figures for Orono was Will Francis, he ended up with 11 points. For the Caribou Vikings, they were led in scoring by Tristan Robbins with 12.
and the upset minded Presque Isle Wildcats going in as the number 7 seed taking on the Winslow Black Raiders, Winslow had stopped Presque Isle twice on the season, but today the wildcats just put it all together with some great defense, and they win by a score of 65-45. Defense was the key in this game for the wildcats, Malachi Cummings ended up with 27 points and Dawson Beaulieu ended up with 11 but the words after the game, were how tough the cats played defense.
Malachi Cummings, Presque Isle Senior:” It was just our defense, just our all over the place defense, putting pressure on the ball at all times, getting hands up; Jason is one of the best players i ever played against, you know I have so much respect for him. But we just played good defense and that’s just what gets everything else going too”
Jack Hallett, Presque Isle Senior:” Yeah, Team saying is pride hustle defense all the way around. The guys in practice really been pushing us; the starting group, really played as a team today and got the job finished so I’m really happy
Dillon Kingsbury, Presque Isle Coach: ” Super proud, super tough. I’m not an easy coach to play for sometimes you know i push them too hard sometimes, but they’ve been nothing but responding well, and they are the definition of mentally and physically tough and i think that was on display tonight”.
Rene Cloukey, Standup:” and it’s a eight game tomorrow at the cross insurance center so it will be a busy day, a lot of county teams are in action, Jonathon now has the schedule, reporting from the cross insurance center in Bangor, I’m Rene Cloukey, newssource sports.
Schedule for Saturday 02/18/2023
Class B Girls
Washington Academy Vs. Houlton/ghca at 9 am
Old Town Vs. Presque Isle 10:30 am
Class B Boys
Old Town vs Foxcroft Academy 12 pm
Ellsworth vs Washington Academy 1:30 pm
Class D Girls
Machias vs East Grand 4 pm
Wisdom vs Jonesport-Beals 5:30
Class D Boys
Schenck vs Katahdin 7 pm
Machias vs Wisdom 8:30 pm
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