The Calais girls basketball team travels to Houlton Wednesday night in yet another battle between two undefeated squads.
Houlton (7-0) currently is ranked first in the Class C North region, while Calais, which also sits at 7-0, is ranked 12th in the region. The two teams tip-off at 7 p.m.
Houlton is coming off last Saturday’s win over Central of East Corinth (8-1) in which the Shires handed the Red Devils their first loss of the season.
“I haven’t seen Calais play thus far this year,” Houlton coach Shawn Graham said. “I know they have a couple younger guards in (Olivia) Huckins and (Lauran) Cook who are very good. They also have Maddie McVicar’s younger sister Sophie. She is a freshman and also having a nice year for them.”
The Blue Devils are ranked 12th because their victories have been over opponents who are struggling to notch wins this season.
Coach Graham added that Calais also lost a couple of players from last year’s squad who transfered to Woodland (sisters Emily and Katie Erskine) and another who transfered to Maine Central Institute (Sydney Farrar), but that does not mean the Blue Devils can be taken lightly.
“These girls were much of their height from a year ago, so I’m assuming they are small,” the coach said. “That said, we are going to look to go inside early and often. I’m also thinking they may be a pressing type team with their quickness, so we have been preparing for different full and half court traps. I’m also figuring they are a perimeter shooting type team, therefore we will play some 1-3-1 zone along with man.”
Following the Calais game, Houlton will have a week’s respite, which will help the team prepare for its next big game — Wednesday, Jan. 17, at Presque Isle.
The top boys matchup on the night features a rivalry contest between the Presque Isle Wildcats and the Caribou Vikings at Caribou High School beginning at 7 p.m.
The teams are trending in opposite directions as Presque Isle (6-2) has won six of its last seven games and is third in the Class B North standings, while Caribou is 4-6 and has lost four of its last five.
“We want to get off to a good start and hopefully play our game, which is up and down the court,” said PI coach Terry Cummings. “[Caribou] plays different styles, sometimes they run and sometime they are deliberate, but we’ve got to be ready either way.”
The Wildcats feature senior guard Griffin Guerrette, who enters averaging 28.2 points per game.
Caribou coach Chris Casavant said that although victories have been elusive during the recent stretch, the team continues to play hard and he expects a strong performance tonight.
“We’re not far from being where we need to be,” Casavant said. “We’ve defended pretty well the last couple games and we’ll have to do that again tonight.”
Parker Deprey, who was recently named Big East Conference Player of the Week, leads the Vikings in scoring at a 15.7 points per game clip.
“We really need more balance on the offensive end and getting guys like Austin [Findlen] and Alex [Bouchard] into double figures more consistently is important, but I like the direction we’re heading,” he added.
Other Wednesday basketball games include GHCA boys at Central Aroostook at 6 p.m.; Woodland boys at Hodgdon, 6:30 p.m.; and Presque Isle girls at Orono at 5:30 p.m.
The Caribou wrestling team is at Fort Kent for a 7 p.m. dual match. Viking senior wrestler Cory Jandreau is going after his 100th career varsity victory in the 138-pound division.
The Presque Isle hockey team is coming off a lengthy layoff due to Friday’s postponement of a scheduled game at Camden Hills. The team is on the road to take on Brewer at 5 p.m.
Results from Tuesday games are:
Girls basketball
Fort Kent 43, Central Aroostook 41 — At Fort Kent, Libby Lapointe scored a game-high 17 points to lead the Warriors to their seventh win in nine games.
Mikayla Pelletier added eight points for the winners. Breann Bradbury’s 14 points, Kassidy Levesque’s 12 and Katelyn Levesque’s eight points paced 6-3 Central Aroostook of Mars Hill, which had its winning streak halted at six games.
Fort Fairfield 45, Hodgdon 31 — At Hodgdon on Tuesday, Sara Edgecomb scored 16 points, hitting five 3-pointers, and Cammi King-Demerchant tallied 12 of her 14 from the foul line to power Fort Fairfield to the victory.
Hunter St. Pierre had nine points for 7-4 Fort Fairfield.
Kora Lambert’s 10 points and Sydney Howell’s eight led 4-4 Hodgdon. Megan Russell added five points.
Katahdin 40, Ashland 21 — At Ashland, Haley Landry scored 14 points and Natalie Rickards added 13 to allow Katahdin of Stacyville to even its record at 4-4.
Morgan Doughty had seven points for 5-5 Ashland.
Southern Aroostook 68, Easton 13 — At Easton, Sydney Brewer scored a game-high 15 points, Kacy Daggett had 12 and Makaelyn Porter scored 11 points as Southern Aroostook (8-1) dominated the Bears in a rematch of last year’s Class D North semifinal tournament game.
Isabelle Morin’s four points paced 1-6 Easton.
Washburn 37, Van Buren 28 — At Van Buren, Washburn outscored Van Buren 24-11 in the second half to erase a four-point halftime deficit and improve to 3-5.
Kassie Farley had 16 points and seven rebounds for Washburn, Alexis Carney scored 10 points and Trinity Saucier-Pellicer grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.
Leah Gendreau’s 14 points and Brooke Caron’s 10 rebounds paced 2-7 Van Buren.
Boys basketball
Van Buren 52, Washburn 21 — At Van Buren, Luc Perreault scored a game-high 15 points to guide Van Buren to its second win in nine games.
Blake Martin contributed 13 points and Brandon Sytulek had 12 more.
Carvor Pendexter’s eight points and Aiden Churchill’s seven led 0-7 Washburn.
Hockey
Old Town/Orono 4, Black Hawks 3 — At the Millar Civic Center Tuesday, the Black Hawks nearly pulled off a thrilling upset over the top-ranked Old Town/Orono squad but came up just short. The Coyotes improved to 8-0 on the season, while the Black Hawks slipped to 2-4.
Old Town/Orono scored twice in the second period as Tyler McCannel scored both goals with assists from Jacob Dubay and Antti Javikare.
The Coyotes pushed the lead to 3-0 with 12:27 to play in the third period as Javikare scored off an assist from Sam Henderson.
Nick DeLucca broke the scoring ice for the Black Hawks with an unassisted goal with 12:16 remaining in the third period. The home team cut the deficit to 3-2 with 7:32 remaining as Alex Wilde scored an unassisted goal.
The Coyotes went up 4-2 with 5:39 remaining on a solo goal from Ben Allen-Rahill. The Black Hawks final goal came just 20 seconds later as Jason Collett took a pass from AJ Henderson.
Goalkeeping stats were not recorded.
