The weekend ahead will be a busy one for local high school sports teams.
Friday’s slate of basketball games include four doubleheaders. East Grand travels to Van Buren, with the girls game tipping off at 5 p.m. followed by the boys at 6:30 p.m. Fort Fairfield plays at Fort Kent, Easton travels to Ashland and Shead of Eastport is at Southern Aroostook. The girls’ games all begin at 5:30 p.m. and the boys are scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
The Hodgdon girls travel to Katahdin for a 6 p.m. tipoff.
Griffin Guerrette of the Wildcats eyes the basket on a fast-break layup attempt, as Houlton’s Keegan Gentle watches during Thursday’s game in Presque Isle.
(Courtesy of Debbie Ackerson)
Saturday’s basketball matchups include: Washburn playing at East Grand (boys at 11:30 a.m./girls at 1 p.m.); Central Aroostook at Southern Aroostook (boys at 5:30 p.m./girls at 7 p.m.); Greater Houlton Christian Academy boys at Hodgdon, 7 p.m.; Jonesport Beals boys at Katahdin, 2:30 p.m.; Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield at Caribou (girls at 1:30 p.m./boys at 4:30 p.m.) and Presque Isle teams at Belfast (girls at 3 p.m./boys at 4:30 p.m.).
Also Saturday, the Caribou wrestling squad joins six other Penobscot Valley Conference teams for a tournament hosted by Penobscot Valley High School in Howland beginning at 9 a.m. The Old Town and Carlisle swim teams square off at the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Gentile Hall swimming pool at 1 p.m. and the Presque Isle hockey team heads south to take on Waterville/Winslow, also at 1 p.m.
Results from Thursday night’s three boys games and another one from Wednesday were as follows:
Presque Isle 66, Houlton 60 — At Presque Isle, Griffin Guerrette’s 27 points and eight rebounds carried the Wildcats to victory over the Shiretowners.
The Wildcats trailed by nine points midway through the second quarter before storming back to grab an 11-point lead in the third. Houlton used a Keegan Gentle buzzer-beater to close out the third quarter just three points down.
Cameron Cleary of the Shiretowners goes up for a shot against Presque Isle’s Carter Rice on Thursday night during the varsity basketball game played at PIHS.
(Courtesy of Debbie Ackerson)
The Shires trimmed the deficit to one (55-54) midway through the fourth, but Guerrette was 7 for 10 from the free throw line in that final period to keep his team in front the rest of the way. Twelve of his points came on foul shots.
Wildcat sophomore Caleb Wheaton came off the bench and tossed in 16 points for Presque Isle. He drained four 3-pointers in the second half.
“He has worked really hard and it was nice to see him rewarded,” said PI coach Terry Cummings. “He started the second half for us and it worked as we were able to spread the floor and get some open looks, which forced them out of a triangle-and-two defense that really gave us fits.”
Also for Presque Isle, Trace Cyr collected 10 rebounds and Jason Dumais had seven rebounds and four steals. Jonah Hudson grabbed five rebounds to go along with his seven points.
Gentle and Cameron Cleary led Houlton with 21 and 20 points, respectively. Nolan Porter chipped in 10. Cleary also had eight rebounds and six blocks.
Central Aroostook 69, GHCA 47 — At Mars Hill, Central Aroostook (1-1) received 21 points from Brayden Bradbury and 16 from Ben Thomas to upend Greater Houlton Christian Academy. Isaac Potter had 13 points for the Eagles (1-2).
CAHS led 9-8, 23-17 and 46-31 at the quarter breaks.
Cameron Cleary of the Houlton Shiretowners (34) fights for a rebound against Presque Isle’s Jason Dumais, left, and Trace Cyr during Thursday’s game in Presque Isle.
(Courtesy of Debbie Ackerson)
Hodgdon 63, Easton 60 — At Hodgdon, the Hawks (2-1) erased a 14-point halftime deficit by outscoring Easton 44-27 in the second half to secure the victory. With the loss, Easton drops to 1-2 on the year.
Josh Foster’s game-high 19 points, Josh Palmer’s 17 and Wyatt Foster’s 14 paced the Hawks. Easton was led by Keagan Kinney with 16 points and Noah Hanscomb with 13.
Easton led 13-8, 33-19 and 44-41 at the quarter breaks, but the Hawks rallied in the final period to pull off the victory.
Fort Fairfield 55, Katahdin 33 — At Fort Fairfield Wednesday, Isaac Cyr poured in a game-high 27 points as the Tigers (3-0) outscored Katahdin 33-12 in the second half to pull away for the victory. Jared Harvey added 10 points for Fort Fairfield.
Katahdin (1-1) was led by Brody Guiggey with 10 points and Rig Otero with nine.
Katahdin led 13-8 in the first quarter, but Fort Fairfield took a 22-21 lead at the half and went up 39-29 after three periods.
