Sports Reporter
The Caribou Vikings suffered their toughest loss of the season Saturday, but bounced back for perhaps its most important victory at home two days later. The Vikes are now 8-5 and in seventh place in the Eastern Maine Class B rankings following a loss to Bucksport and a win over Old Town.
Fort Fairfield is having another strong year. At 10-1 and with 44.69 points, the Tigers are in second place in Eastern Maine Class D and had won 28 of 29 regular season contests over the past two seasons entering last night’s home matchup with Van Buren.
Washburn is in fifth place with an 8-3 record and 32.04 tournament index. The Beavers defeated Southern Aroostook Thursday and Van Buren Friday and had won five in a row heading into a home contest last night against Greater Houlton Christian Academy.
Limestone/MSSM is in 16th (2-11, 3.26) and has just five games remaining on the regular season schedule.
Summaries of games played through Monday, Jan. 18 are as follows:
Caribou 45, Old Town 40 – At Caribou, Matt Till scored a game-high 23 points, including six 3-pointers, as the Caribou Vikings rallied for the victory.
Viking coach Chris Casavant made a bold move by removing his starting five two minutes into the game and with a 4-0 deficit. However, the reserve crew kept the game within striking distance for the remainder of the quarter and the starters re-entered the game with renewed energy.
“The subs maintained a score that could have ballooned quickly, and then the starters came back in and did a much better job working and competing,” Casavant said, who said he decided the remove his starting five after the team’s lackluster effort in a 59-42 loss at Bucksport two days earlier carried over against the Coyotes at home. “It was a roll of the dice [to pull the starters], but somehow I had to send a message.
“We are a team that needs to come ready to play and compete,” Casavant said. “We have to compete for 32 minutes to have a chance to win, and we didn’t show up against Bucksport.”
The Coyotes had entered the game on a six-game winning streak, but Caribou used an aggressive defense and the timely shooting of Till to register the come-from-behind win.
“Matt has really struggled shooting the last two or three games, but he had that look that ‘everything I shoot is going to go in,’” Casavant said. “The team feeds off his energy on the defensive end too, and that was big.”
Chris Nadeau scored eight points and Ted Walker added six for the Vikes.
Luke Bartlett paced Old Town with 11 points.
Bucksport 59, Caribou 42 – At Bucksport Saturday, the final statistics told the story as Caribou shot just 15 of 57 from the floor, including 1 of 12 from the three-point line, and was just 11 of 26 from the foul line in the surprising loss.
Cameron Anderson scored 17 points and Nadeau had 12 to pace the Vikings offensively.
Washburn 69, Van Buren 39 – At Washburn Friday, Connor Fitzpatrick poured in 15 points and Mitch Worcester added 13, including three three-pointers, as the Beavers claimed the easy win.
The Beavers led by just two points at the end of the first quarter, but used a 25-0 run in the second to win going away.
Fort Fairfield 59, Katahdin 35 – At Stacyville Friday, the Tigers placed four players in double figures to get past the Cougars.
Jahleel Williams and Travis Noyes each popped in 15 points to pace Fort Fairfield, Dereck Dufour contributed 11 and John McNamee had 10 to round out the balanced attack.
Colby Gallagher led Katahdin with 13 points and teammate Colton Bivinghouse added 12.
Washburn 62, So. Aroostook 57 – At Dyer Brook Thursday, Worcester’s 32 points led Washburn to the victory over Southern Aroostook. The Beavers led at all the quarter breaks, 12-8, 26-17 and 41-36, and evened up its season series with the Warriors.
Connor Fitzpatrick had 11 points for the Beavers.
Cody Robinson totaled 19 points for the Warriors and Dakota Sleeper added 18 points.
Caribou 50, Fort Kent 30 – At Fort Kent last Wednesday, Matt Till’s 11 points led Caribou to the win. The Vikes held the Warriors off the scoreboard in the second quarter to take a 16-point lead into intermission.
Jared Soucy led the Warriors with 12 points.
Fort Fairfield 64, LCS/MSSM 29 – At Fort Fairfield last Tuesday, John McNamee netted 11 of his game-high 16 points in the third quarter as Fort Fairfield topped the Eagles.
Nobody tallied more than four points for the Eagles.
