March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Dorr, Fecteau near perfect in foul shot contest> Seniors pondering college choices

BANGOR – It was a long 24 hours for Presque Isle’s Kasey Keenan.

The junior, who was scheduled to participate in Saturday’s 8 a.m. state foul shooting contest at the McDonald’s Boys/Girls-East/West Senior All-Star games at Husson College, didn’t arrive in Bangor until 1:30 a.m. Saturday.

That’s because Keenan and his family had left Presque Isle at 11 a.m. Friday, drove to Boston to attend the Celtics-Nuggets game, before heading back to Bangor.

“Dad asked me if I wanted to stay down in Portland or come back to Bangor, and I told him I’d rather go back to Bangor than get up early,” Keenan said.

Keenan connected on 41-of-50 attempts but finished fourth, as Chad Dorr of Narraguagus and Ed Pillsbury of Messalonskee shot it out after each made 49 shots.

Dorr won the shootout by hitting 10-of-10 in the tiebreaker, while Pillsbury finished second at 9-of-10.

Mike Burke of Gorham finished third after netting 44 free throws.

Westbrook senior Bri Fecteau won the girls contest, making 48-of-50 shots, beating out Lawrence’s Michelle Clark, who hit 46 shots. Kerri Russell of Penquis made 43 and Presque Isle’s Kim Condon connected for 39.

The Keenan family scheduled the weekend outing, which was supposed to include Friday and Sunday Celtics games, before Keenan knew he had been selected for the foul shooting contest.

“It was worth it,” Keenan said of the Celtics’ 99-98 at-the-buzzer win. “Once in a while they win a game. I don’t know how they won the game because they didn’t play well.”

And there was one other factor leading to the 5-foot-3 point guard’s decision to cut the trip short.

“I have baseball tryouts at 6:30 in the morning Monday, and we’d be getting back at 5:30 in the morning so we gave the tickets to a couple of friends,” he said.

Not only do the McDonald’s Senior All-Star games signify the official end of the Maine high school basketball season, they also coincide with the period in which several of the state’s best senior players get down to their final one or two collegiate choices.

Caribou’s outstanding center-forward Brett Doody will be attending Le Moyne College, a Division II school in Syracuse, N.Y., on a basketball scholarship.

“They offered me a scholarship so I’m going to play for them,” he said. “It’s a real nice campus, nice school, and real nice people, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Mount Desert Island forward Marc Corliss is hoping to attend Colby College in Waterville and continue playing basketball.

“That’s my first choice. I think I have a good chance. My grades are pretty good so hopefully I’ll get some academic scholarships,” he said.

Central Aroostook of Mars Hill center Ben Allen will attend either Lyndon State College or Castleton State College after graduation.

“I’m going to go down April vacation and pick one. I’m not leaning either way yet,” he said.

Allen’s teammate, Matt Townsend, is looking to keep playing at the University of Maine-Presque Isle.

“I’m still deciding, but I’m leaning that way,” he said, adding he hasn’t decided what he’d like to study.

Hodgdon’s Sam Henderson is bound for Gordon College in Wenham, Mass., where he plans to continue playing basketball.

Old Town guard Corey Thibodeau was the unofficial winner of the unofficial pregame dunking contest. The University of Maine-bound guard successfully executed several one-handed slams, reverse slams, and slams off bounce passes to wow the crowd and his fellow players.

“That was pretty neat. I think they should have a competition every year. That would be pretty fun,” said Thibodeau, who explained that he doesn’t dunk in games often because he’d rather lay it in and score than take a chance on missing it.

Other standouts were Doody, who delivered several dunks while switching hands; Bangor’s Richie Day, who impressed onlookers with his athletic ability while converting a few two-handed, thunderous slams; and Fort Kent’s Ryan Martin, who amazed fans with his spin moves and vertical leaps.

Corliss, MDI’s tenacious 6-4 rebounding machine, finally found something he couldn’t dominate: the dunking contest.

“I was embarrassed out there because I can’t dunk very well,” said Corliss. “Watching those guys do 360’s and stuff was unbelievable.”

After watching his boys from Central Aroostook race up and down the court all season from the bench, coach Jerry Adams got a chance to see the same style of play from a different angle Saturday.

Adams, a longtime official, was one of the referees officiating the Class A-B boys McDonald’s game.

It must have seemed like deja vu watching the A-B boys sprinting up and down the court.

“It’s very similar. When you’ve got talent like that, you don’t worry about the combinations you’ve got on the floor, just let them go,” said Adams. “I believe that’s the style of basketball that spectators today like to watch.”

Adams joked that the only disadvantage to doing a game like this was whiplash and exhaustion.

“I got a pretty good workout with it being a three-man crew so I’d hate to see what it was like with two,” said Adams.


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