Two games this season give everyone hope when it comes to knocking off Morse in the Eastern A girls basketball tournament.
Jan. 18: Oxford Hills 41, Morse 39. Feb. 14: Edward Little 38, Morse 37.
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Morse has clearly the best player in the bracket in 6-foot-1 senior Nikolene Ostergaard, who is averaging 21.5 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. But in each of those two losses — the second was in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championship game — the Shipbuilders came out flat.
“The situation we had there is we came out before the game very sluggish,” Morse coach Mike Hart said.
Top-seeded Morse (17-1) opens the tournament against Messalonskee at 8:30 tonight at the Augusta Civic Center.
“These kids are playing with some aggressiveness and some intensity,” Hart said. “These kids are chomping at the bit to get back out there.”
Messalonskee, the No. 8 seed at 9-9, has been erratic this season, at times looking like it could play with anyone, and at times looking completely out of sorts. Eagles coach Brenda Beckwith is clear her team has nothing to lose at this point.
“They have, I think, a very balanced inside-outside game, so I think defensively, we have to be very sharp,” Beckwith said. “We can’t make any mistakes, or they’re just going to wheel and deal on us. Offensively, we have to guard against a lot of turnovers.”
At 7 tonight, No. 4 Cony (10-8) faces No. 5 Brunswick (12-6). Cony might be the enigma of the tournament. The Rams missed the playoffs last season and started off 2-4 this winter. But after nearly beating Western A power McAuley in the Capital City Hoop Classic, Cony started putting it all together and went 8-4 the rest of the way.
That stretch included two wins over Brunswick, a victory over No. 3 Hampden, and a game with Morse in which Cony trailed by five at the end of the third quarter. So when the Rams are on, they can be dangerous. They don’t have a lot of height, but getting 5-foot-9 forward Crystal Clark (9.7 ppg, 6.5 rpg) back to full strength has been a big help.
Bangor (No. 7 seed, 12-6) has also shown big improvement from the early stages of the season. Bangor was just 5-5 at midseason, but finished the year with five straight wins, all of them by single digits.
Bangor will face No. 2 Edward Little (15-3) at 4:30 p.m., today. The Red Eddies have lost twice to Morse and once to Brunswick, and have rebuilt their team after falling apart down the stretch last season due to an injury to leading scorer Kirsten Prue. Sophomore Ashlee Arnold leads Edward Little in scoring at 18.0 ppg, but four other players are also among the conference leaders in different categories.
Today’s other game is at 3 p.m., and pits No. 3 Hampden (16-2) against No. 6 Mt. Ararat (9-9). Hampden did not face Morse this season, and lost by 20 in its only meeting with Edward Little. The Broncos did defeat Mt. Ararat, 58-37, on Dec. 28.
Hampden has the most balanced scoring in the bracket — Katelyn DeRaps leads the way at about eight points per game — and has held 14 of its 18 opponents under 40 points.
“If we shoot well, we could beat anybody,” Hampden coach Chad Bradbury said. “But if we don’t, we could lose to anybody.”
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
mdifilippo@centralmaine.com
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