BANGOR – Bangor Auditorium officials and a Brewer roofing company were up early Friday morning to put a temporary fix to the leaky Auditorium roof.

Workers from Mid-State Contractors started at about 7 a.m. and finished by 11, in plenty of time for Friday’s 2:05 p.m. girls Class C semifinal game.

One corner of the Auditorium floor was picked up Thursday night to make room for bucket trucks that lifted workers to the ceiling Friday. They installed a blue tarp, supplied by the roofers.

“They tied off the tarp under the general area where the water was coming through,” said Bass Park director Mike Dyer. “They ran a hose from the collection point in that tarp off to the side of the floor in case there’s any further leakage.”

Water first started to come down Thursday afternoon during a Class D girls semifinal. That game was suspended for about 25 minutes while officials decided to continue play with 13-year-old Shane Davis wiping the wet floor regularly (by the evening games Davis had been supplied with a laundry basket full of white towels).

The roofers were up on the Auditorium roof Friday morning looking for spots where the insulation may be wet, taking out the wet insulation and replacing it with dry insulation.

“They did as many as they could find and they’ll be back on Monday after the weekend to see how it looks and check it out again,” Dyer said. “… The past two or three years we’ve been pretty lucky. Five years ago they did some of that work and it’s held up pretty well.”

Calais girls hit milestones

With a 64-36 win over Central in Friday afternoon’s Class C semifinal, the Calais girls have hit two remarkable numbers: 200 wins in 10 years, and 10 straight appearances in the regional final.

Teams changes and players come and go, but the constants for Calais have been head coach Bob McShane (16 years) and assistant Brenda Batson (the cheerleading coach from 1989-94 and a McShane assistant since 1995).

“It’s me,” Batson said with a laugh.

“It’s her,” McShane fired back.

The 200 wins in 10 years works out to a whopping 20 wins per season.

Calais is one of the most successful girls basketball teams in the state, having won eight Eastern Maine Class C titles since 1991 and five state championships since 1993, including the 2001 title.

“We’ve had a lot of great players, and Brenda and I have both been here,” McShane said. “… We have a great youth program. The kids play together through eighth grade and every year you get a group of kids who love to play basketball. We travel, and we love to play. Then you get the rewards.”

Electrifying Eddie

Eddie Carey has picked up quite a few nicknames since taking his breakneck style of basketball from Newman Gym at Husson College and far-flung Class D hoop venues to the big crowds at the Bangor Auditorium.

Yes, tournament week is making Bangor Christian’s senior exchange student from the Bahamas a household name.

Through two victories in the Eastern Maine tourney this week, the Nassau native is averaging 17 points, 11.5 rebounds, five assists and three steals per game.

The fleet-footed forward is also averaging about two highlight-reel plays a game, hence the monikers people have come up with for the personable Patriot: Fast Eddie, Electric Eddie and Crash Carey.

“Eddie’s been a great asset to our team this year,” said senior guard and tri-captain Matt Conley. “He’s been the spark for us and he electrifies the crowd.”

From dunks to steals to fast-break layups that happen so quick they’ll be missed if you blink, the Eddie Carey show is a certified hit in Bangor. And Bangor is a big hit with Eddie.

“I haven’t played in as big a place as the Bangor Auditorium or the one in Augusta,” Carey said. “The biggest one in the Bahamas is like the one we play in at Husson College. This is big… Too big.”

The 18-year-old bid bye to the Bahamas, bon voyage, and headed to Bangor after meeting a foreign exchange student representative for Bangor Christian at a Virginia Christmas tournament in 2000.

“There was a lady there and she said if I’d like to go to Bangor Christian as an exchange student, I could go. I guess her kids went there,” Carey explained. “I thought it was a good idea, so I went with my instincts and I just came.”

Carey was starting to doubt those instincts shortly after arriving here in early October, especially once the temperatures and the snow started falling a couple months later.

“First time I saw snow, I as like ‘whoa, this is freaky.’ It gets too cold here,” Carey said. “I’m used to 100 degrees every day. A cold day in the Bahamas is like 70 or 60.”

Climate aside, Carey is enjoying his time in the Pine Tree State and is looking forward to playing baseball in the spring before heading back home in June.

“I love it. The people here are great,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of friends back home and I’m telling everyone they should come here.”

Tribute to a friend

Calais sophomore guard Andy Frost is drawing some extra inspiration this year as he tries to help the Blue Devils win an Eastern Maine Class C crown.

Frost, who has known Bangor Christian junior guard David Chrisos for several years since his family became friendly with David’s, has dedicated his play in the Eastern Maine tournament to Chrisos, who was severely injured in an ice-related car accident last week.

Chrisos, who woke from a drug-induced coma earlier this week, has begun physical and mental rehabilitation at Eastern Maine Medical Center after suffering a bruised lung, concussion and head laceration.

“Andy realizes life is precious and things happen,” said Jim Frost, Andy’s father and Calais’ assistant coach. “Dave’s a young man we know and love and Andy said ‘I’m going to play for Dave this week.’ ”

To that end, Frost has added some things to his team-issued shooting shirt. He has Chrisos’ name and number (34) on his shirt to honor his friend during warm-ups.

Chrisos was Bangor Christian’s leading scorer and, like Frost, would have made an appearance in an Eastern Maine championship game Saturday as the Patriots are in the Class D contest.

Frost and Chrisos played against each other in baseball (Little League and up) and basketball (junior high), and have also played golf together on a recreational basis. Their families became close after the Chrisos’ moved into the Frost’s neighborhood in Brewer.

“They lived just one street over from us in Brewer and we spent some time with them when we were living there,” Frost said.

Harris within hailing distance

Just as she did all through the regular season, Lee sophomore guard Katie Harris has been deadly from 3-point range so far in the playoffs.

Harris buried four 3-pointers in the quarterfinal and three in Thursday’s semifinal. The Eastern Maine tourney record for 3-pointers in the regional tournament is 10, set by Leigh Bradstreet of Central Aroostook in 1990.

After two games Harris is 7-for-15 from long range. She also made four 3-pointers in Lee’s divisional round game against Fort Fairfield.

Two of the shots Harris hit Thursday showed off her impressive range. The first came at the end of the third quarter. She was near the Panda bench, about 5-6 feet beyond the 19-foot, 9-inch 3-point arc. The second shot came in the fourth quarter, on the right side of the court, about 4-5 feet out.

The Lee sophomore guard hit seven 3-pointers in a regular-season game against Katahdin.

“I guess someone told me I’ve broken all the 3-point records in my school, or something like that,” Harris said. “I’ve always been able to make them, since my freshman year.”

Five-man football

The lack of a true point guard and the abundance of space-filling forwards on Jonesport-Beals’ boys basketball team has led to a drastic change in a long-held philosophy by head coach Ordie Alley.

Alley, well-known for his love of an uptempo game featuring run-and-gun offense and full-court pressure defense has made it back to the Eastern Maine Class D final for the sixth time in the last 12 years on the strength of a half-court offensive game, rebounding, and a deliberate tempo.

“This is the first time in my 34 years we’ve had to slow it down,” said Alley. “Of course we kind of have to with the guys we’ve got.”

With a starting lineup that averages 5 feet, 101/2 inches in height and around 175 pounds per player, the Royals roster appears suited more for football.

“We don’t have any true guards, but we’ve got some size and we’ve got some beef,” Alley said with a chuckle. “We have some guys who throw some pretty good passes too, so we probably would be a pretty good football team.”

Roger Reed to the rescue

In preparing for a Class D semifinal game against defending Eastern Maine champ East Grand of Danforth and the Vikings’ withering full-court press, Bangor Christian boys coach Gary Colson called upon a well-known peer who began a stellar coaching career at the private school on Broadway in Bangor.

“Roger Reed came out last night and helped me come up with a way to beat their press and he helped us do some things on defense, too,” said Colson, who played for Red at Bangor Christian.

Reed, who started up the boys basketball program at Bangor Christian and led the Patriots to eight tournament appearances in 12 seasons, has gone on to coach Bangor High to five state titles and six regional championships in 16 seasons, also helped his old team come up with a way to defend explosive East Grand guards James Godley and Darius Parker as well as the Vikings’ large frontcourt.

“We worked on hedging off screens and stuff and that’s what really kept Godley under wraps,” said BC center Pat McCleary. “He was running around his big men off of screens and running into one of us. He wasn’t seeing an open lane and I think that was the biggest factor in the game.”

BC’s blend of 2-3 matchup zone and man-to-man defenses helped hold Godley and Parker to 15 points each. Both had to work so hard to get open, East Grand coach Troy Cilley admitted both were tired by the time the fourth quarter rolled around. The fact Godley also had a cold didn’t help either.

Cilley said it was somewhat complimentary that one of the top coaches in the state was brought in to help solve his team’s attack.

“I guess that’s someone nice to be able to fall back on with all his experience and knowledge,” Cilley said. “It’s tough now, but I guess it’s a pretty good compliment to our players and our defense.”

Multitalented Marble

Woodland senior guard Ashley Marble is already a talented multisport athlete, but even she didn’t realize just how versatile she is until she took a spill on the Bangor Auditorium floor Thursday.

“I was going to do a trap and I stepped on the water, slipped, and did a nice split,” Marble said. “I landed on my wrist and my knee. It was bad.”

Well, the pain was bad, but the split probably would have garnered some decent scores in a gymnastics competition.

“It’s a little too late, but I guess I could have done that,” she said with a giggle. “I’m pretty flexible, I guess.”

Marble says she could have always gone into another winter sport as well.

“Yeah, I think I can do cheerleading now, too, because I could already do jumps and now I know I can do splits,” she said. “I guess I’m all set.”

Patriots say ‘hi’ to Sage

Bangor Christian guard Andrea Sage couldn’t be at the tournament this week, but the Patriots wanted to make sure she knew they were thinking about her.

Sage, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee earlier this season, underwent surgery Wednesday. The Bangor Christian girls propped up a sign on their bench that read “Hello Andrea.”

BC coach Craig Miller lost two of his top players to knee injuries this year. His daughter Danielle Miller also tore her ACL before the season started.

“They’re best friends, that’s the weird thing about it,” Miller said after Thursday’s 78-61 loss to Lee. “I’m thankful they’re only juniors.”