The Southern Aroostook Warriors, the Central Aroostook Panthers and the Houlton Shiretowners have made it into the boys basketball quarterfinals after winning preliminary playoff games Wednesday night.
Southern Aroostook, the 10th seed, advances to take on No. 2 Jonesport Beals in the Class D quarters Monday at 11:05 a.m.
In Class C, Central Aroostook, ranked fourth, will take on No. 5 Fort Kent at 2:05 p.m. Tuesday, while the Shires will play No. 1 George Stevens Academy at 3:35 p.m., also on Tuesday.
Summaries of Wednesday’s games are as follows:
Central Aroostook 72, Madawaska 44 — At Mars Hill, the Panthers outscored the Owls 26-9 in the third quarter to pull away for a Class C prelim victory.
The hosts led by just four points at halftime before finally breaking it open. Central Aroostook was led by Brayden Bradbury, who tossed in 21 points. Colby Kingsbury chipped in with 16 points.
Madawaska, the No. 13 seed, was paced by Tristan Cyr with 21 points.
Southern Aroostook 70, Easton 52 — Jayden Burpee scored 27 points as Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook upended the seventh-seeded Bears in Easton.
The Warriors grabbed the early lead and built on it the rest of the way. Xavier Morales netted 14 points, Garrett Siltz scored 13 and Hunter Burpee had nine for the winners.
Keagan Kinney’s 16 points paced Easton while Camden Michaud and Noah Hanscomb each added nine.
Houlton 51, Lee Academy 36 — At Lee, the ninth-seeded Shiretowners outscored the host-Pandas 25-5 over the game’s final 10 minutes to rally for the victory in a Class C North prelim.
With the win, the Shires advance to Bangor for the first time since 2015.
Houlton (15-4) trailed 31-26 before embarking on its decisive run, which included limiting No. 8 Lee (13-6) to one field goal the rest of the way.
Houlton’s Nick Brewer was a perfect 11 for 11 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter for the Shires, on his way to a game high 15 points. Jaron Gentle came off the bench to add 11 points.
Lee Academy got 10 points each from Kuan Yeh and Alexey Platonov and eight more from Sammy Huang. Platonov grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.
Lee led 10-9 in the first quarter, but Houlton went up 23-21 at halftime. The two squads were knotted at 31-31 after three periods.
(Photos courtesy of Dave Allen Graphics)
