New EM teams enjoy Bangor’s atmosphere

The first games at the Bangor Auditorium for two Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference teams located in southern Maine drew mixed results, but the players and coaches on both teams agreed on one thing.

You just can’t beat the Bangor Auditorium tourney experience.

Both top-seeded Brunswick and Oxford Hills of South Paris – two teams switched from Western Maine tourney participants to Eastern as part of the ongoing offseason tinkering on the open-tournament system – made their Eastern Maine Class A Tournament debuts at the Auditorium Saturday as the quarterfinal round wound up its eight-game schedule.

Unbeaten Brunswick routed Bangor by 32 points and Oxford Hills lost a seven-point decision to Presque Isle.

The intimacy and intensity of the Auditorium atmosphere was something Brunswick players and coaches were keenly aware of coming in.

“For us it was the adjustment coming from Western to Eastern Maine with the atmosphere, the reffing, the tempo,” said Brunswick senior Dan Hammond. “We came up during February break and watched the Class B semifinals just to get the atmosphere and feel of it, and it was unlike anything we’ve ever been around.

“It doesn’t compare. Last year we played Lewiston and were up 20, and the fans were going crazy, but you couldn’t really hear them. Here you’re up 20 and it’s all you can hear. Someone said if you’re down, the crowd gets to you. You can’t hear and you can’t think, but when you’re up, it’s just pure excitement.”

Sophomore Ralph Mims was equally effusive in his praise.

“Ohhhh, I love it because it’s louder,” he said. “It’s a big change for us with the crowds chanting back and forth … This is good.”

Brunswick coach Todd Hanson, an alumnus of Waterville High School and the University of Maine who won a high school state championship at the Auditorium and played several games there while at Maine, was glad to be back at the fan-friendly arena.

“I love it up here. The passion up here can’t be replicated anywhere,” he said. “Playing down in Portland the last couple years, the fans are so far away. It’s a hockey rink. The court itself is beautiful, but it’s like you’re on an island with no fans.”

Oxford Hills coach Scott Graffam, who coached the last team to beat Bangor in the quarterfinals, said playing at the Auditorium didn’t make much difference since his team hadn’t been in a regional tournament since 1994.

Welch decides to play

Nokomis junior guard Lindsey Welch didn’t hesitate when her doctor said it was her decision on whether she could play her first game since incurring a stress fracture in her right foot on Jan. 29.

“I realized that I wanted to come back and win this for my friend Mandi [Foss]. I wanted to play as hard as I could for her,” Welch said after the Warriors of Newport defeated Mount Ararat of Topsham in a Saturday Class A quarterfinal.

Foss died in a December snowmobile accident, but is remembered daily by her teammates and is listed on the Nokomis roster in the tourney program.

Welch, who had a bag of ice strapped to her foot after the game, said her foot was still sore but decided to play with the pain and try to contribute. She notched six points, four assists and two steals.

Nokomis coach Earl Anderson said Welch’s return has given the Warriors a spark.

“She’s given us a psychological lift because we’re a very close team. It’s not just the steals or assists, it’s the fact they have a teammate who they love and care about who can now do what she loves, which is play,” Anderson said.

Clark’s milestone

Nokomis junior forward Danielle Clark didn’t realize she was close to 1,000 career points until Anderson told her the news before last week’s prelim round.

Clark hit the plateau early in Saturday’s game when she poured in 11 first-quarter points.

“I wasn’t thinking of the 1,000 at all,” Clark said. “They were just giving me the holes, the lanes. There’s no way I could have scored the 1,000 points without the teammates I’ve had.”