Central Aroostook girls to open tonight

The Central Aroostook girls and their new coach, Dillon Kingsbury, are the last of the local teams that have yet to play their regular season opener.

The Panthers face a tough test to begin the season as they take on the Houlton Shiretowners, last year’s Class B North champions, at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Mars Hill.

Both teams are competing in the Class C ranks this season as the Shires moved down from B and the Panthers stepped up from Class D. Kingsbury is making his debut at CA and as a girls’ coach. He coached the boys in Houlton two years ago after spending five seasons heading up the Easton boys’ program.

It’s just one of many games being played Wednesday night involving basketball squads from the region. Ashland travels to Madawaska in a boys/girls doubleheader beginning at 5:30 p.m. and Washburn makes the trip south to Danforth for another twinbill which gets underway with a 5 p.m. girls’ contest.

The Central Aroostook boys are in Dyer Brook to take on Southern Aroostook, while the Fort Fairfield boys hope to run their record to 5-0 with a home game against Katahdin. Both tip off at 7 p.m.

Summaries of the games played Friday, Saturday and Monday are as follows:

Boys basketball

Fort Fairfield 57, Easton 29 —  The Tiger defense limited the Bears to two first-half field goals Monday in rolling to a 26-point halftime lead, on their way to the lopsided victory at the Barn in Easton.

Isaac Cyr scored 18 points, Alex Sprague 16 and Jared Harvey nine for Fort Fairfield (2-0). Wyatt Keegan came off the bench to tally eight for the winners.

Keagan Kinney and Collin Sotomayor led Easton (1-1) with six and five points, respectively.

Madawaska 58, Washburn 34 — Madawaska used an aggressive half-court trap to defeat the Beavers in Washburn Monday.

The Owls (1-0) were led by Robbie Lausier’s 22 points and Ben Hebert’s 16 points, while Konner Jordan scored nine points for 0-2 Washburn.

Washington Academy 63, Presque Isle 62 — At East Machias Saturday, Donald Soctomah’s basket with five seconds left capped a furious fourth-quarter comeback from a 14-point deficit to give Washington Academy the win. Presque Isle missed a potential game-winning shot at the buzzer.

The Wildcats stormed out to a 15-point first quarter lead behind Griffin Guerrette’s 11 points. He totalled 31, while Jonah Hudson and Jason Dumais netted nine each and Trace Cyr tossed in eight.

Tihomir Babic led the way for WA with 22 points and 17 rebounds and Jim Lin had 12 points, 10 of which came during the fourth-quarter comeback

Fort Fairfield 66, GHCA 43 — At Fort Fairfield Friday, Alex Sprague registered a game-high 21 points, Isaac Cyr chipped in with 16 and Jared Harvey 10 to guide the Tigers past the Eagles.

GHCA was led by Isaac Potter’s 14 points. Parker Brewer (12 points) and Cole Winslow (10) were also in double figures.

Van Buren 53, Washburn 46 — Luc Perreault poured in a game-high 33 points as the Crusaders won on the road Friday. Brandon Sytulek added 15 points for the winners.

The Beavers were led by Patrick Saucier, who scored 15 points, and Jordan, who tallied 10.

Houlton 63, Central Aroostook 49 — The Shires bolted to a 12-0 lead five minutes into the game and were up by 25 at half and by 27 at the end of three quarters before settling for the 63-49 victory Friday in Houlton.

Three players scored in double figures for Houlton as Nick Brewer netted 21, Cameron Cleary added 14 and Jaron Gentle chipped in 12.

Brayden Bradbury led Central Aroostook with 17 points and Jacob Carvell added 10.

The game marked the first time in decades that Houlton and Central Aroostook have met during the regular season. Houlton and CA are both competing in Class C North this year. The Shires were in Class B last year and the Panthers were in Class D.

It also was the first time Houlton Coach Tim Brewer has faced the team he coached for 15 seasons. Central Aroostook Coach Jason Woodworth was a four-year varsity player for Brewer, competing on the state championship squad in 2005. He also served as a junior varsity coach under Brewer.

Easton boys 56, Ashland 32 — Collin Sotomayor had a big game with 12 points, six assists, six steals and four rebounds, while Isaac Currier posted nine points, four rebounds and two steals as the Bears won in Closson’s varsity coaching debut.

Ashland started well, scoring the game’s first six points and bolting to a 13-8 lead, but Easton controlled the rest of the game. Dylan Haley scored 11 points and Baily Clark nine for the Hornets.

Girls basketball

Madawaska 47, Washburn 31 — The Beavers grabbed a seven-point lead at the end of the first quarter Monday, but the visiting Owls came back as Jenna Dugal netted 20 points and Brianne Thibeault had 15 to lead the charge.

Hannah Nadeau chipped in with 10 points as Madawaska, which outscored Washburn 35-15 over the second and third quarters, had a successful regular season opener.

Kassie Farley scored 14 points and Alexis Carney added seven for the Beavers, whose record evened at 1-1.

Presque Isle 90, Washington Academy 15 — At East Machias Saturday, Maggie Castonguay’s 20 points and Emily Wheaton’s 15 powered Presque Isle to the victory. Kasey Haley added 12 points to the winning total.

Riley Fraser led the Raiders with four points.

Fort Fairfield 47, Katahdin 35 — At Fort Fairfield Saturday, the Tigers had nine players who scored, led by Cammi King-Demerchant’s 11 points and 11 rebounds, as they defeated the Cougars.

Freshman Brenna LeVasseur had nine points and classmate Kourtney West added six points and nine rebounds. Hunter St. Pierre grabbed a team-high 15 rebounds.

“Katahdin is a tough team with everyone but one player back from last year and they were so much taller and stronger than we were,” said Tiger coach Larry Gardner, “We focused all this week in practice in boxing out, which paid off.”

The Tigers held a 49-31 advantage in the rebounding department.

Katahdin was led by freshman Dee Libby with eight points, while senior Hannah Drew had seven.

Ashland 52, Easton 38 — Megan Cote scored a career-high 20 points and hauled in 13 rebounds as the Hornets downed the Bears Friday in Easton.

Amber Chasse added 13 points and Morgan Doughty scored seven for the Hornets, who pulled away in the third quarter.

“It was a good opening-season win for us in a tough place to play,” said Ashland coach Ben Lothrop. “Megan had a career night for us, going in on both the left and right sides of the basket and we had lots of different players contribute in various ways, so it was a true team win.”

Easton was led by Isabelle Morin with 15 points, 11 of which came in the first half.

Washburn 47, Van Buren 26 — At Washburn, Kassie Farley scored 24 points and registered 11 rebounds to lead the Beavers to the victory over the Crusaders at home Friday.

Raegyn Chavez added nine points and Trinity Saucier-Pellicer 11 rebounds for the Beavers. Leah Gendreau led the Crusaders with nine and Tiffany Morrow had seven.