East outguns West 143-134 Farmer sparkles in shootout

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Defense?

Anybody looking for some hard-nosed team defense in Saturday afternoon’s McDonald’s East-West Senior All-Star game for Classes C-D might just as well have been better off going in quest of Jimmy Hoffa or an NBA Championship Trophy in the city of Dallas.

With the East stars sprinting past their Western Maine counterparts by a 143-134 margin, any semblance of defense was as rare as a Honus Wagner baseball card.

This was a good old-fashioned hardwood track meet, where those in the stands looked more like tennis fans – looking left, then looking right, then left again, then right again.

This was Loyola Marymount meets the Continental Basketball Association.

This was a blast.

“It was just a fun game to play in, just an offensive show,” said Schenck’s Mark Farmer, who tossed in 24 points on 10-for-11 accuracy to pace the East to its first victory since 1990.

“It was loads of fun,” Farmer added. “You get to meet a lot of people. You’re enemies during the season, but its fun to team up with all that talent and show your stuff on the court.”

Show their stuff these 20 seniors did, combining for 203 field goals attempted, 106 field goals made, and who knows how many miles run.

How high-scoring was it?

Nine and a half minutes into the game it was 34-34. With seven minutes to go, it was 53-51, East. At halftime? How about 75-75.

“Coach (Buddy) Wood just said forget the defense, we’re going to put some points up,” said Larry Worcester, who coaches Washburn High and co-coached the East team along with Washington Academy’s Wood.. “This is a good bunch of kids and there was no one-man show. They worked the ball around and played great. It was a fun group.”

The East, which held a prohibitive height advantage, used that to its full advantage, limiting the West to one shot while kicking off its own running game.

When the dust settled, the East had converted on an impressive 58 percent (51-for-88) of its field goals.

“We had to play that way,” said West co-coach Dave Poulin of Winthrop. “We’ve only got two post players and (the East) had a tremendous height advantage over us. We figured we’d get into that type of game and I think everybody had fun with it.”

Jim Wirkala of Woodland High added 19 points for the East while Paris Calor of Washington Academy, Ryan Caron of Ashland, and Billy Look of Jonesport-Beals each had 16 points apiece.

Bob Davies of Old Orchard Beach, who claimed the Mr. Maine Basketball Award on Friday night as the state’s top senior player, didn’t disappoint. He fired in 41 points, grabbing 13 rebounds and handing out eight assists.

“It was some wide-open game,” said Worcester. “Boy, it must have been fun to watch.”

Or, as these players will confirm, to play in.

East C-D Boys 143, West 134

West C-D East C-D

Name AG G AF F TP Name AG G AF F TP

Michaud 4 1 0 0 2 Calor 10 4 8 8 16

Arsenault 17 8 2 0 20 Wirkala 11 8 2 0 18

Plunkett 4 2 1 0 4 Farmer 11 10 2 2 24

Lessard 3 2 0 0 4 Stewart 8 2 6 4 9

Cayer 22 9 1 0 22 Caron 9 6 3 3 16

Post 11 3 0 0 7 Harmon 5 5 2 2 12

Erickson 16 9 0 0 24 Look 11 7 2 2 16

Lee 8 5 0 0 10 DeMerchant 3 1 4 3 5

Davies 30 16 5 5 41 Rivera 5 3 8 6 13

Feeney 7 3 1 1 7

Hoyle 8 2 3 1 7

Totals 115 55 9 5 134 Totals 88 51 41 32 143

West C-D Boys 75 134

East C-D Boys 75 143

3-pt. goals: West (19-47): Erickson 6-9, Davies 4-13, Cayer 4-11, Arsenault 4-8, Post 1-5, Michaud 0-1; East (8-14): Farmer 2-2, Wirkala 2-2, Stewart 1-3, Caron 1-2, Harmon 1-1, Rivera 1-1, Calor 0-1, Hoyle 0-1, DeMerchant 0-1.