There’s no doubt about it: Central Maine took Class B by storm in the high school basketball tournament this year.
With a group of Augusta-area teams playing in the North regional tournament for the first time in several years, both the boys and girls regional finals were all-Central Maine affairs. The Gardiner boys and girls, Lawrence girls, and Cony boys from Augusta earned those final four North spots.
And now, both Class B state champions are from Central Maine as well. The Lawrence girls from Fairfield got the better of Oceanside from Rockland to start the state championship round off in style on Friday night. And the Gardiner boys followed suit with a thrilling victory over Yarmouth.
Both teams powered through the tournament with skilled play and well-prepared coaching. They each could boast a regional tourney MVP in Lawrence’s Maddie Provost and Gardiner’s Brady Atwater.
They also did it by turning Bangor’s Cross Insurance Center into a home atmosphere.
Though a statewide reclassification shuffled teams like Lawrence and Gardiner around this year and had them playing a lot of their postseason basketball in Bangor rather than the Augusta Civic Center, the extra distance didn’t seem to be a deterrent for the Bulldog and Tiger faithful.
Far from it.
The Cross Center turned into a sea of blue and orange for Lawrence and Gardiner games. And the players certainly felt the support.
“It’s awesome. We have the best fans, and their support just helps us so much,” said Provost, a guard who certainly bolstered her already strong chances of taking home the Miss Maine Basketball award as the state’s top senior player.
Provost scored 19 points in Friday’s championship victory to go with a whopping 14 rebounds. She said she had never played on the Cross Insurance Center floor until this year’s postseason tournament, but like so many of the Central Maine teams and fans getting used to the Bangor atmosphere, she still looked right at home.
The same was true for the Gardiner boys as they tracked down their school’s first-ever boys basketball state title.
“We love Bangor, we love getting on the bus together and getting up here. It’s an awesome environment and awesome crowd,” Gardiner senior guard Brady Peacock said after his team’s victory over Yarmouth. “We just love it.”
That atmosphere and support is what Maine high school sports are all about, according to Maine Principals’ Association executive director Mike Burnham. The MPA overseas high school sports across the state.
“This is playing for your community, playing for your school,” Burnham said after the Lawrence girls won their title. “For the communities to show up and support these kids is truly special.”
The fans seem to feel the same way.
Luke Provost, the Lawrence star player’s father, said another state title for the highly-decorated Bulldog girls program means a lot to Fairfield and the surrounding towns that send students to Lawrence.
“It’s a tremendous feeling and accomplishment for the community. As you saw with the support from the crowd, we really have a great community,” said the proud parent. “I try to teach my kids history, and they understand the history of girls basketball at Lawrence. Even the boys have a couple of championships. So it means a lot to us, and I think the kids all understand history and what it means for the community.”
The same is surely true in Gardiner, where they are now celebrating the first-ever state championship for the boys team.
Gardiner coach Aaron Toman, who won a 2012 regional title as player for the Tigers on the court in Bangor, noted earlier in this year’s tournament that the trip to Bangor has sometimes been a good one for Gardiner in the postseason.
“I think we love playing up here,” Toman said after the regional finals. “Us Gardiner Tigers love playing up here.”
It certainly didn’t hurt that the Tigers fans were out in force, making games like the state title matchup feel like a home game with a thunderous roar in critical moments and a flurry of orange towel-waving.
And the results of the trip speak for themselves, with two Central Maine teams both heading home as Class B state champions.
