Caribou outlasts Cape Elizabeth in double overtime for first state crown since ‘69

The Caribou High School Vikings celebrate their victory over Cape Elizabeth High School in the boys Class B state championship basketball game at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Saturday. (Troy R. Bennett | BDN)

PORTLAND, Maine — The Caribou boys basketball team ended a 50-year state championship drought in grand style Saturday, outlasting Cape Elizabeth 49-47 in double overtime to win the Class B crown at the Cross Insurance Arena.

The Vikings, who won just three of their first six games this winter, ripped off 16 straight wins to end the season with a 19-3 record.

Cape Elizabeth finished its season at 14-8.

Austin Findlen, the lone senior starter for Caribou, scored a team-high 13 points while junior forward Parker Deprey added 12 points and junior guard scored nine.

Andrew Hartel, Cape’s 6-9 senior center, had game-high totals of 18 points and 15 rebounds before fouling out with 2:17 left in the second overtime.

This game was tied at 42-42 at the end of regulation and 47-47 at the end of the first overtime.

Caribou got the only points of the second overtime on a free throw by Bouchard with 2:36 left and one by Isaac Marker with 19.8 seconds to play.

Cape had one last chance to tie or take the lead, inbounding the ball from the left wing with 5.4 seconds left. Nate Mullen inbounded the ball to Amaniel Hagos, who passed the ball across the court to Tanner Carpenter.

Caribou High School’s Austin Findlen and Cape Elizabeth High School’s Nathan Mullen fight for the ball in overtime during the boys Class B state championship basketball game at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Saturday. (Troy Bennett | BDN)

Carpenter’s 3-point bid hit the front of the rim, and Caribou’s Alex Bouchard knocked the ball into the backcourt to end the game.

Caribou last won a state championship in 1969, with Mike Thurston’s shot from beyond the midcourt stripe as time expired lifting the Vikings past Westbrook 65-63 for the Class LL state crown.

Cape Elizabeth won its last state championship in Class B in 2015, the final year before the Maine Principals’  Association expanded high school basketball from four to five classes.

Cape Elizabeth dominated the backboards in the early going, outrebounding Caribou 10-2 while building a 9-2 lead in the scoreboard four minutes into the contest.

But a timeout by first-year head coach Kyle Corrigan served to settle down the Vikings, and after Sawyer Deprey drove past Hartel for a layup and older brother Parker Deprey buried a 3-pointers, Caribou was into the flow of its game.

Cape Elizabeth High School’s Andrew Hartel takes the ball to the hoop while guarded by Caribou High School’s Sawyer Deprey (left) and Parker Deprey in the boys Class B state championship basketball game at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Saturday. (Troy Bennett | BDN)

A pullup jumper by the Vikings’ Isaac Marker tied the game at 11 before Hartel beat the first-quarter buzzer with a turnaround jumper from the lane to give Cape a 13-11 edge.

Caribou took its first lead at 16-15 on a 3-pointer by Marker with 6:00 left in the first half after Sawyer Deprey rebounded his own miss, and another 3-pointer by freshman Michael Brigham soon gave the Vikings a 21-18 edge.

But Cape held Caribou scoreless over the final two minutes of the half, and a coast-to-coast drive and a pullup jumper by Mullen gave the South champs a 22-21 edge at the break.

Parker Deprey led Caribou with seven points in the opening half, while Hartel had eight points and eight rebounds for Cape Elizabeth.