What do you do when you lose a NEWS All-State first-team star forward and one of your top rebounders to graduation?

Well, if you’re Mike Francoeur, you simply pluck a couple of reserves who gave you plenty of productive minutes off the bench last year, insert them into the starting lineup, and hardly miss a beat.

In terms of maturity, experience, and maybe even intangibles, the Deering Rams of Portland may be even better than they were last year. But that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t take back last year’s Mr. Maine Basketball, Jamaal Caterina.

“No, I was wondering if he might be available for a few minutes. Maybe we could sneak him in there for a minute or two here and there,” Francoeur said with a chuckle.

Don’t start feeling too sorry for the Rams coach. After all, Deering is making its second straight appearance in the Class A state championship game with a not-too-shabby 19-3 record. Not only that, but the Rams are back with their other NEWS first- teamer, center-forward Nik Caner-Medley, and star guard Walter Phillips.

Caner-Medley, one of four senior starters, is posting sterling numbers in his final high school season before moving on to the University of Maryland with a full basketball scholarship. The 6-foot-7 forward is averaging a state-best 34.6 points per game along with 15.3 rebounds, 4.3 steals, and 2.9 blocks.

The Rams have plenty of firepower to go along with Caner-Medley, but for much of the season, it’s been a bit under wraps.

Phillips missed seven games with a knee injury, but is back at 100 percent. The 6-foot-2 guard-forward scored 62 points in his last three games to give opponents two big scorers to try and stop.

So, instead of going with a box-and-one targeting Caner-Medley, teams tried a triangle-and-two aimed at Caner-Medley and Phillips. Thanks to the emergence of junior shooting guard Pat Conway, that didn’t work very well, either.

“I think we’ve seen just about anything from teams trying to contain Nik,” said Francoeur. “We’ve been able to prepare for and play against anything teams can do.

When we saw a box-and-one on us, Walter scored 41. We played South Portland the next night, saw a triangle-and-two, and Patrick dropped 32. I think we’re coming together at the right time because we really played well last week.”

The other starters are 5-10 point guard Bo Belanger and 6-1 power forward Josh Marks. Key players off the bench are 6-4 sophomore forward Matt Nichols, 6-2 junior swingman Anthony Ramonas, and 5-10 sophomore guard Joe Marsh.