Witches soar to top after sixth victory

At least a handful of high school hoop fanatics around Eastern Maine must have done a double take over the Heal Point Standings on Wednesday morning.

Listed No. 1 under the Eastern Maine Class A boys standings was – Brewer. Say it again, with a pinch this time. The Brewer High School boys basketball team is 6-1 and sitting atop the Eastern Maine big schools division.

“It’s nice. I’ve never been there as a coach,” said Brewer’s eighth-year boss Mark Savage, adding the last time Brewer was in the No. 1 spot was in 1984 when Andy Nickerson, Phil Kimball and Steve Smith helped lead the Witches to a 17-1 record.

Over the last decade, Brewer boys basketball has been a bastion of mediocrity, posting an 82-98 regular season record.

But who exactly are these guys?

In the words of Savage, they’re the most even group of high school basketball players he has ever seen assembled on one team.

It is not uncommon for Savage to substitute 5-for-5 during any point of the game. Wednesday night during Brewer’s 79-59 victory over Old Town, the coach played 12 players in a flow-of-the-game substitution pattern. There are only 13 players on the roster.

“I think more than anything we have a lot more balance and a lot more depth,” Savage said. “Most teams go seven or eight deep, but I go 11 or 12 deep without losing anything.”

As an example of that, during last week’s 85-77 upset win over Caribou, Savage took out his starters for five fresh players only four minutes into the game. The second group then helped Brewer increase its lead.

“It’s a real luxury,” Savage said. “They’re getting real comfortable with the fact they are only going to get 22 or 24 minutes a game. I think they go a bit harder because they know they’re going to be getting a break.”

Brewer, winners of five straight since a blowout loss to Bangor, is not without its offensive stars.

Unlike Brian Colman, who had to carry the offensive load last year while leading Brewer with over 20 points per game, the Witches look to a handful of players to put the ball in the hoop this season.

Jared Seavey, a 6-foot-2 senior forward, has stepped up as a leader on both ends of the court. Troy Leavitt and Jason Leighton, two junior guards, can also score along with Adam King, a 6-3 sophomore, coming off the bench with that second unit.

Seniors Randy Billings, Jon Thomas and Jeremy Somes; juniors Nate Freeman, Jon Bennett, Erik Duffey, Jacob Carr and Mike Johnston; and sophomore James Hinckley round out the this edition of the Witches.

Johnston, a burly 6-1, and Hinckley, a lanky 6-5 center, handle most of Brewer’s inside chores.

Savage, whose team is off to the best start of his tenure, points to the end of last season as a springboard into this season’s run.

Brewer, which finished 8-10, won three of its last five games, including upset victories over Caribou and Bangor and a near-upset of state Class A champion Lawrence.

“I think what I saw at the end of last season has a lot to do with it,” Savage said. “They really liked the idea of winning. When we almost beat Lawrence, then beat Caribou and Bangor, they sort of sat back and said, `This is good. We like this.’ ”

This year, Brewer High School basketball fans are saying the same thing.

Thomas Moonlight, a senior at Foxcroft Academy, will join this year’s Northeast Soccer Club as a member of its touring team.

The NSC team will visit England, Holland, Belgium, and Germany.

Moonlight tried out for the team in Winthrop last November. He is the lone represenative from Eastern Maine on the team that is based out of Rindge, N.H.