AUGUSTA — Rangeley girls basketball coach Heidi Deery has been through this before.
Tournament schedule set. Inclement weather arrives. Tournament schedule in chaos.
“It is what it is,” she said. “There’s not much we can do about it. We got canceled twice last year and it was tough. We were supposed to play on a Monday and we ended up playing Tuesday, Thursday and then on Friday. The back-to-back days are tough.”
With snow and freezing rain expected in the region Tuesday morning, the Maine Principals’ Association adjusted the schedule for games at the Augusta Civic Center. It marks the second straight year the MPA altered the tournament slate in Augusta. The Class D South girls quarterfinal games Tuesday were postponed to Wednesday and several start times in other regionals were adjusted as a result.
The No. 4 Temple Academy (12-6) girls will now play No. 5 Highview Christian (12-6) at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Deery’s top-seeded Lakers (17-1) will follow at 10 a.m. against No. 8 Greater Portland Christian (6-12). The D South semifinals are scheduled for Thursday.
“It’s not an ideal situation,” Deery said. “We’ll make the best of it and do what we need to do.”
In Class C South girls tournament action, No. 4 Madison (12-7) is now scheduled to tip off against No. 12 Traip (8-11) at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Top-seeded Richmond and No. 12 Traip will follow at 2:30 p.m.
The AA boys and girls semifinals will be played Tuesday as scheduled at the Civic Center.
On Wednesday, the Class D South boys semifinal games got pushed to the afternoon. No. 3 Seacoast Christian (13-6) will play No. 7 Islesboro (12-7) at 11:30 a.m. No. 1 Valley (18-0) will play No. 5 Greenville (13-5) at 1 p.m.
The Class A North girls semifinals will begin at 4 p.m. with Gardiner and Messalonskee. Hampden and Lawrence will follow at 5:30 p.m.. Wednesday will end with Class A North boys semifinals — Medomak Valley is set to play Brewer at 8 p.m. and Oceanside will play Hampden at 9:30.
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Northeast Sports Network president and CEO Eric Berry said his company is ready to live stream all 60 regional semifinal and final tournament games this week from Bangor, Portland and Augusta.
“Ready to go,” said Berry. “It’s been a lot of work. It feels like we’ve been working for the last two months to get ready for a tournament of this magnitude.”
Berry and the Maine Principals’ Association reached an agreement in early December for Vermont-based NSN to provide a free live stream of tournament games in high definition.
Familiar Maine sports radio voices Rob Kennedy, Don Shields and Toby Nelson — among others — will call the bulk of the games.
“We wanted to get Maine talent to do the games,” Berry said. “Everyone knows these names; they are very familiar voices. We want to make sure we do a great job for the folks in Maine. We accept the responsibility of putting out a great product. Me being a basketball guy, too, we want to make sure this comes out right.”
Berry is the girls basketball coach at Lyndon Institute in Vermont. His team opens tournament play there next week.
Berry added that aside from lining up sponsors, NSN worked closely with each venue — the Augusta Civic Center, Cross Insurance Center in Bangor and the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland — to ensure a smooth setup.
“We wanted to make sure the bandwidth was going to be sufficient to produce a stream at a rate we’d like,” he said. “We’re doing this in HD so we had to get ready for that, too. We’re excited to get going. We’re ready to go, ready for the games.”
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Winthrop’s Cameron Wood spent many long days and nights in the gym for his moment, and he didn’t disappoint.
Wood, a 6-foot-7 freshman, checked in after starting senior center Anthony Owens got into early foul trouble early in the second quarter of a Class C South quarterfinal Monday against Old Orchard Beach and quickly scored a pair of baskets. His performance allowed coach Todd MacArthur to protect Owens and keep him on the bench for the rest of the half.
“Anthony getting in foul trouble could have been a huge blow, but he gets, what, two quick baskets?” MacArthur said. “That’s what we needed. Next man up. You need somebody to make a play and he definitely did that.”
“I just wanted to be strong and go to the hoop,” Wood said.
Wood saw limited varsity playing time during the regular season, but earned his coach’s confidence in Winthrop’s biggest game of the year by putting the work in as a swing player.
“He’s progressed. He’s a big boy,” MacArthur said. “He’s probably played four hours a night of basketball this year, so he’s put a lot of time in to get better, and he really stepped up when we needed it.”
“We’ve worked a lot in practice,” Wood added. “Going four hours a day, it’s built up my stamina.”
Like virtually every player in the tournament, Wood is hoping for many more appearances on the Augusta Civic Center floor.
“It was great,” he said. “I love the atmosphere.”
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