BANGOR, Maine — A girls’ basketball matchup between Class D Washburn and Class C Fort Fairfield will be among 13 regular season games being played Dec. 27 and 28 as part of the first Maine Basketball Hall of Fame Classic at the Cross Insurance Center.
The Beavers and Tigers will square off at 1:30 p.m. and is the third of seven games on tap that day. Washburn is 3-2 and in third place in the Class D North standings, while Fort Fairfield is unbeaten at 5-0 and is the No. 3-ranked team in the C North division.
Play begins at 10 a.m. Dec. 27 with a boys clash between Penquis of Milo and defending Class D state champion Greenville. Subsequent games that day match the Piscataquis of Guilford and Penquis girls at 11:45 a.m., the Washburn-Fort Fairfield girls at 1:30 p.m., the Searsport-Central girls at 3:15 p.m., the George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill-Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln girls at 5 p.m., the GSA-Calais boys at 6:45 p.m., and a Class A battle between Brewer and Cony of Augusta at 8 p.m.
Six more games follow on Friday, Dec. 28, beginning at 10 a.m. with a top Class C North boys matchup between Houlton and Mattanawcook Academy. That will be followed by the Houlton-Stearns of Millinocket girls at 11:45 a.m., the Stearns-Dexter boys at 1:30 p.m., the Schenck of East Millinocket-Dexter girls at 3:15 p.m., the Central-Lee Academy boys at 5 p.m., and the 6:45 p.m. finale between the Lee Academy and Calais girls.
Tickets are $5 per person each day for the full slate of basketball.
Event organizers, who first began discussing an idea floated by Maine Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and former University of Maine men’s basketball coach Skip Chappelle last year, see the event not as a fundraiser but a chance to expose its physical home in the Cross Insurance Center to more fans as well as give back to those who support the sport in Maine.
“With the expense of the hall, if we break even we’ll be happy,” said Tony Hamlin, chair of the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame’s board of directors, during a press conference at the Cross Center. “We’ll probably incur some losses but it’s worth it.
“We hope having the event right after Christmas allows some people to get in here, spend some time in the concourse and see the Hall of Fame and get in touch with basketball.”
The idea of sacrificing a regular-season home date in exchange for playing a regular-season game at the Cross Insurance Center initially was floated to Penobscot Valley Conference member schools last spring.
PVC schools were eager to respond to the opportunity to play a game on the 94-foot collegiate-length court that serves as home to the Classes B, C and D North regional tournaments each year.
Most of the games already were scheduled for Dec. 27 or 28, so there was not a lot of shuffling required to fit the MBHOF Classic schedule, Hamlin said.
Hamlin said the hope is for the MBHOF Classic to become an annual affair, though event organizers will meet after this year’s games to make that determination.
“We want to raise the consciousness and level of awareness with the hall and do something that will benefit the community,” he said.
