No. 6 Seahawks host No. 11 Carrabec Wednesday

Fri, 02/09/2018 - 2:15pm

BILL PEARSON

The 2017-2018 Boothbay Region High School boys varsity basketball team. Pictured from left are, front row: Sullivan Rice, Kaeden Davis, Kyle Ames, Elijah Gudroe, Steve Reny, Sam Burnham; back row: manager Max Hoecker, Jacob Wilson, Ben Pearce, Nick Simpson, Nicholas Morley, Hunter Crocker, Cameron Crocker and Coach I.J. Pinkham. Missing are assistant coaches Dennis Rice and Dan Hallinan and manager Tyler Field. Courtesy of BRHS

The Boothbay boys basketball team won eight of its last 10 games, but it wasn’t good enough to secure a guaranteed trip to the Augusta Civic Center. Boothbay (13-5) finished sixth in the Class C South Heal point standings resulting in a Feb. 14 preliminary game at 6 p.m. against No. 11 Carrabec of North Anson.

The Cobras finished 6-12, but had an important mid-season victory. Carrabec overcame a 14-point first half deficit in defeating Boothbay, 61-55, at Porter Memorial Gymnasium.

Boothbay regrouped after that loss and has been a tough opponent in Mountain Valley Conference play. Since Jan. 6, the Seahawks have beaten No. 2 Winthrop and No. 7 Madison in Class C South and No. 7 Mountain Valley and No. 8 Lisbon in Class B South. Boothbay’s only two losses in the past 10 games were to No. 1 Hall-Dale (17-1) in Class C South and No. 4 Spruce Mountain (13-5) in Class B South.

Conversely, Carrabec hasn’t fared as well against tournament-contending teams. Besides Boothbay, the Cobras’ only win against tourney contenders was Feb. 5 against Madison, 59-53. The Cobras and Bulldogs split their two games. On Dec. 15, Madison won 74-44.

The Boothbay-Carrabec winner faces No. 3 Waynflete at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 19 in the Augusta Civic Center. The Portland private school finished 15-3 in Western Maine Athletic Conference play. The Flyers’ three losses were to the top three teams in Class B South: Wells, Cape Elizabeth and Yarmouth.