Most local basketball teams advanced and a couple were eliminated during the preliminary round of the Eastern Maine basketball playoffs, held last Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Fort Fairfield girls and boys, the Easton boys and the Central Aroostook girls were all victorious, while the Ashland boys and Easton girls came up short in their games.
The Washburn girls and boys avoided having to play in the prelim round after both had finished in first place in the final Class D standings.
Summaries of the prelims are as follows:
Fort Fairfield boys 54, Bangor Christian 40 — The Tigers prevailed thanks to a tough defensive effort at home last Wednesday.
Chris Giberson led the third-seeded Tigers with 13 points, while Robbie Watson had 12 and Hunter Beaulieu chipped in with 11. Fort Fairfield moved to 15-4 on the year.
The 14th-ranked Patriots, who led 7-2 early before Fort went on a 10-0 run to end the first quarter, were paced offensively by Seth Pearson, who had 16 points.
Shead boys 47, Ashland 36 — The No. 10 Ashland Hornets stayed in contention until midway through the fourth quarter, but fell to seventh-seeded Shead in Eastport last Wednesday.
Tony Theriault and Greg Jarrett each scored 12 points to pace the victorious Tigers.
Cody Blair sparked the Hornets with a game-high 18 points and Mark Chasse added 10. Ashland finished with a 7-12 overall record.
Easton boys 46, Stearns 35 — Last Wednesday at “The Barn” in Easton, the Bears took a 21-point lead into intermission but had to survive a third-quarter rally by the Millinocket-based Minuteman to sneak away with the win.
Easton, the No. 4 seed, relied on a balanced offensive attack, with junior guard Logan Halvorson netting three three-pointers to total 11 points. Cody Halvorson and Jake Flewelling added 10 points apiece.
No. 13 Stearns was led by Kacey McVey with a game-high 14 points. Mark Morneault chipped in with 10.
Fort Fairfield girls 46, DI-Stonington 32 — The third-seeded Tigers, led by Meg Jellison’s 21-point effort, defeated the No. 14 Mariners last Tuesday in Fort Fairfield.
Chelsey Pelkey added 11 points for Fort Fairfield, who improved to 17-2, while Marissa Brouette (six points) and Taylor Churchill and Kayla Giberson (four each) were the other offensive contributors.
Morgan Shepard paced 8-11 Deer Isle-Stonington with 12 points.
Penobscot Valley girls 46, Easton 33 —Amy Hallett’s 26-point performance carried the ninth-seeded Howlers past the No. 8 Bears in a Class D prelim at Easton last Tuesday.
Sami Ireland netted 13 points for Penobscot Valley of Howland, which won for the 12th time against seven losses.
Kylee Carter paced Easton, which finished 12-7, with 15 points. Kalie Ward added nine points and Elise Allen chipped in with seven.
Central Aroostook girls 34, Wisdom 33 —Karli Levesque scored a game-high 17 points to help the No. 13 Panthers upset No. 4 Wisdom in Class D prelim action last Tuesday in St. Agatha.
Down by a point late in the fourth-quarter, Wisdom had possession and was fouled with three seconds remaining, however, both free throw attempts were missed, with a lane violation called on the second attempt, and the Panthers ran out the clock.
Kassie Levesque had six points, Molly Anthony five and Kelsey Dominique four for CA, which had fallen to Wisdom twice during the regular season.
Rhylee Wright tallied a team-high 16 points for Wisdom.
