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Flyers, Seagulls threat to MVC streak

By GARY HAWKINS, Kennebec Journal Sunday, February 17, 2013

It´s been 14 years since a Western Maine Conference team has cracked the stranglehold the Mountain Valley Conference has held on the Western Maine Class C basketball tournament.

With two strong WMC entries, Waynflete and Old Orchard Beach, in the tournament, this could be the year.

"Usually it´s the MVC," said Dirigo coach Travis Magnusson, whose Cougars have won four straight regional titles. "The people that haven´t seen Waynflete and Old Orchard play, I think they´re going to be surprised how good they are."

Sixth-seeded Old Orchard faces Magnusson´s No. 3 Cougars in the quarterfinal round today at the Augusta Civic Center while No. 2 Waynflete meets No. 10 Monmouth. The other two games feature familiar opponents. Top-seeded Boothbay faces No. 8 Wiscasset, a team it beat twice in the regular season while No. 4 Madison plays No. 5 Hall-Dale, a team it defeated in their only meeting.

Waynflete returns four starters, led by senior forward Serge Nyirikamba, the team´s leading scorer and rebounder.

"He´s all-conference first team," Waynflete coach Rich Henry said. "There´s no nonsense about the way he plays."

Dirigo graduated four starters form last season´s Class C state championship team but has bounced back nicely, losing just once this season to Boothbay

"We´ve still got good guard play," Magnusson said, referring to T.J. Frost and Hunter Ross. "We´ve improved as much as I´ve had a team improve."

They Cougars face a veteran team in Old Orchard.

"We played them last year," Magnusson said. "They have four starters back from that team."

Madison blew out Hall-Dale, 64-31 last month in Madison.

"We couldn´t handle their guard pressure," Hall-Dale coach Chris Ranslow said. "They play a 2-3 and use the guards up top to trap out of it."

Austin Kane and Dylan Price are Madison´s top two scorers and both have bounced back nicely from early-season injuries. Hall-Dale has struggled with injuries in the latter part of the season. Neither center Sam Shepherd nor forward Zac Plummer played against Madison. Plummer is out for the season with a torn ACL while Shepherd has come back slowly from a badly sprained ankle.

"It´s still pretty swollen," Ranslow said. "He looks pretty tentative on it. We´ve mixed him in the last two games."

Ranslow won´t start his 6-foot-6 center and shot blocker and is also dealing with a shin injury to sophomore Wesley Lapointe, who is expected to start.

"It looks like we´re going with four sophomore and (senior guard Michael) Woods," he said.

Monmouth, which upset Winthrop in a prelim game this week, faces a formidable task against an experienced Waynflete team that lost just once this season to Class B Cape Elizabeth.