Calais’ Martin honored Miss, Mr. Maine Basketball named

BANGOR – Miss Maine Basketball already has two gold balls and three regional titles to her credit. Mr. Basketball has two regional crowns, but no gold ball.

Despite their different backgrounds and levels of success, when asked if they’d trade the awards they won Friday night for a state championship, both Lanna Martin of Calais and Nik Caner-Medley from Deering of Portland had identical answers.

“For a state championship, honestly, I would,” said Martin, who will attend St. Anselm’s College on a basketball scholarship.

“This is the ultimate way to end my high school career, but not winning a state championship is definitely going to be a hole in my career,” said Caner-Medley. “I’ve wanted to win this as long as I can remember, but I’d give it up to anyone to have a gold ball.”

Martin, a 5-foot-8 guard-forward, was a four-year starter on a team that went 82-7 during her career. She finished with 1,250 career points. The daughter of Alton and Mona Martin and valedictorian of her class averaged 17.8 points, 10.4 rebounds, 6.7 assists, and 6.5 steals per game in leading Calais to a second straight Eastern Maine Class C championship this year.

Despite her impressive resume, Martin was sure she wouldn’t win the award, and still wasn’t totally sure she’d won even as she was presented it at the annual Maine McDonald’s East-West Senior All-Star banquet at Husson College.

“I wasn’t even going to bring it up there, but I did just so I could have something to clutch onto while I was standing there for 10 minutes while they were saying all that stuff about me,” Martin said.

Martin beat out Class D standout Ashley Marble from Woodland – a fellow Downeast Athletic Conference star – and Megan Myles from Edward Little of Auburn.

“It was great to have two girls from Downeast as finalists for this award, especially two girls who play 10 minutes apart from each other,” Martin said.

Caner-Medley was named Maine’s Gatorade Player of the Year after averaging 34.5 points, 15.3 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 4.2 steals over 23 games and led the Rams to a second straight Western Maine Class A regional title.

The 6-8 forward-center was a human matchup problem for most teams as he possessed unusual quickness and agility for a player his size. A solid student, Caner-Medley committed to the University of Maryland last year on a full athletic (basketball) scholarship.

Caner-Medley was selected over fellow finalists Travis Magnusson from Georges Valley in Thomaston and Aaron Spaulding from Cape Elizabeth.

Friday’s dinner was in honor of the 22nd Maine McDonald’s East-West Senior All-Star Game participants, as well as the naming of the Mr. and Miss Basketball recipients, all-academic squads, and foul shooting champions.

Also Friday, former coach Ron Brown and his wife Shelly were given the contributor award while Portland Press Herald reporter Tom Chard received the media award.

The all-star games will be held at Husson’s Newman Gymnasium Saturday. The Classes C-D girls game at 10 a.m. will start things off, followed by the boys C-D game at 11:25 a.m., the girls A-B game at 12:50 p.m., and the boys A-B game at 2:15 p.m.