Teams jockey for playoff positions

By Gloria Austin
Staff Writer
The final night of the regular basketball season is Friday.
Teams must wait to find out their final standings and who they match up against in the playoffs.    To see up to date standings go to www.mpa.cc.
In Class C boys, the Houlton Shiretowners are atop of the Heal Point standings and should stay that way with a 16-0 record (133.1790 tourney points) with two games left against Caribou (played yesterday) and Washington Academy on Friday night at 7 p.m. in Houlton’s Alumni Gymnasium.
The top 11 teams qualify for the preliminary round of the Eastern Maine tournament, with the first five teams receiving byes and heading straight into the quarterfinals. The preliminary games are scheduled to be played on Wednesday, Feb. 12.
As of Tuesday morning, Calais was second with a 13-3 record (96.7593); Lee Academy, third, 15-3 (91.6667); Washington Academy, fourth, 11-5 (85.0309) and Penquis Valley was fifth with an 11-6 record (61.4506).
Looking at the prelims, the No. 6 team — Dexter with a 10-7 record and worth (57.7469) as of Tuesday, would play the No. 11 Narraguagus with a 7-9 record and 42.7015 points. The No. 7 team will host No. 10 — Bucksport (9-8, 52.6235 tourney points) and Orono (8-9, 47.8395 tourney points) — while the No. 8 and No. 9 teams face off — PCHS (9-8, 50.8025 points) and Central (7-10, 50.3086 points) — if the standings hold.
In Class C girls, the Lady Shires are holding the last spot for a bye in fifth place, but PCHS and Mattanawcook still have point-worthy games on their schedules, which could knock Houlton out of its current spot.
Preliminary games for the girls are to be played Tuesday, Feb. 11.
The first seed in C girls is Calais, 15-2 with 100.6173 tourney points; second, Orono, 15-1 and 96.8519 points; third, Narraguagus, 14-3, 81.0911 points and fourth, Dexter, 12-4, 51.4198.
As of the most current standings, PCHS was sixth with a 10-6 record and worth 40.4630 points and would face No. 11 Lee Academy, 7-9, 25.4938 points; No. 7 Mattanawcook Academy, 8-9, (39.7531 points) would face No. 10 Washington Academy, 5-11 (26.3889 points); No. 8 George Stevens Academy, 7-9 (35.9568 points) vs. No. 9 Sumner, 7-10 (29.4753 points).
In Class D, the top 16 teams, boys and girls, qualify for the postseason, with all teams playing an initial game to see who gets to Bangor.
As of Tuesday’s Heal Points, the boys’ brackets would look like the following: No. 1 Washburn (14-2, 83.6420 tourney points) vs. No. 16 Katahdin (8-9, 15.4938 points); No. 2 Easton (17-0, 76.4198 points) vs. No. 15 Wisdom (7-10, 20.0000 points); No. 3 Hodgdon (15-3, 69.6296 points) vs. No. 14 Schenck (5-12, 21.1728 points); No. 4 Shead (12-4, 58.7963 points) vs. No. 13 Deer Isle-Stonington (7-10, 22.5617 points); No. 5 Machias (9-6, 51.0131 points) vs. No. 12 Fort Fairfield (6-10, 26.0802 points); No. 6 Southern Aroostook (10-6, 50.3086 points) vs. No. 11 Central Aroostook (6-10, 28.5494 points); No. 7 Woodland (8-8, 40.9586 points) vs. No. 10 Van Buren (9-7, 34.7531 points); and No. 8 Bangor Christian (9-8, 37.0225 points) vs. No. 9 Stearns (9-8, 35.2160 points).
The prelim games are set to be played on Wednesday, Feb. 12.
In girls Class D, No. 1 Van Buren (14-3, 83.9506 points) would face No. 16 Woodland (4-13, 10.8025 points); No. 2 Schenck (14-3, 79.0432 point) vs. No. 15 East Grand (4-13, 19.1667 points); No. 3 Fort Fairfield (11-5, 72.4074 points) vs. No. 14 Katahdin (8-9, 20.1543 points); No. 4 Washburn (15-2, 68.2407 points) vs. No. 13 Shead (27.0062 points): No. 5 Machias (15-1, 61.6340 point) vs. No. 12 Ashland (5-12, 30.2469 points); No. 6 Limestone/MSSM (15-3, 61.4506 points) vs. No. 11 Southern Aroostook (11-6, 33.8272 points); No. 7 Stearns (8-8, 56.1728 points) vs. No. 10 GHCA (11-6, 36.6049 points) and No. 8 Easton (12-5, 49.3827 points) vs. No. 9 Penobscot Valley (11-5, 48.3333 points).
As the season closes, teams may leapfrog each other with the top teams still having a game or two left on their schedules which could impact the final standings.
East Grand (3-14) and GHCA (0-17) boys, as of Tuesday, were No. 20 and No. 23 in Class D, while the Hodgdon girls were No. 24 with a 0-17 record.
The Eastern Maine Tournament begins on Friday, Feb. 14 and will run the full week, with the championship Saturday, Feb. 22. The state games are scheduled to be played Friday, Feb. 28 for Class B and Saturday, March 1 for Classes C and D.