At one point in the regular season the Mount Desert Island girls basketball team realized it was making around nine 3-point baskets per game, and decided to look up the Eastern Maine Class B tournament record for 3-pointers in a game.

When the Trojans saw that three teams were tied with seven, they knew they had an opening. Indeed, the MDI girls made nine 3-pointers to break the record, which had been actually set in the morning quarterfinal when the Belfast girls hit eight long-range shots.

Jessica Norwood led the Trojans with four 3-pointers. She’s now made 38 3-pointers in MDI’s previous 11 games and is shooting 43 percent from behind the arc. She was 4-for-9 Saturday.

“I did practice a lot this summer and I’m just getting a feel for it now,” Norwood said. “At the beginning of the season I was kind of shaky but we’re all getting into it now.

Belfast coach Ted Rioux set up several plays for 3-pointers as his Lions were trying to catch up to Rockland.

“It is a huge part of our offense and in the coming years you’ll see it even more a part of our offense,” Rioux said. “Next year we’re going to get more penetrate-and-pitch, four guards and a post and 3-pointers. It’s going to be more of a run-and-gun pressing team next year.”

Bouncing baby boy

This time of year, boys varsity basketball coach Troy Cilley always has a lot on his mind.

His East Grand Vikings of Danforth have been an Eastern Maine Class D power and a mainstay at the tournament.

This year, Cilley has had even more to think about.

As his top-seeded Vikings were playing a preliminary playoff home game Wednesday, his wife Renee was going into labor.

“We won and I went up after the game Wednesday night. Then she had him the next morning,” Cilley said.

Ryley Christopher Cilley weighed in at 7 pounds, 11 ounces and measured 19 inches.

“My assistant says he’ll be a point guard,” Cilley said with a chuckle. “He’s already got a little hoop up on his crib.”

Computing on the court

The Woodland girls team has ushered the computer age into the Eastern Maine Tournament with the use of a laptop computer to quickly crunch numbers and provide statistics.

Head coach Arnold Clark credited high school math Judy Clark and assistant coach Tom Simmons for coming up with a computer program that allows the team managers to track statistics like shooting percentage, rebounds, and assists right from the bench during games.

“These kids have been in on that the last two years,” said Clark. “It’s working pretty well and it’s a good educational thing for the kids. It’s good for the program and it’s good for the kids and our team.”

Beth Hinson, Kirstin Ham, and Ashley Maenhout take turns using the laptop.

“At halftime, they can just come in and print it right out and tell us what we’re doing right and wrong,” Clark said.

Woodland’s new weapon

Opposing teams already have enough to worry about when defending Woodland junior forward Katie Smith, but she’s not about to cut them any slack.

Now there’s even more to worry about as Smith has developed a 10-foot jump shot to complement her inside game.

“I took the shot last year, near the baseline, but it seemed like I was making every shot outside in the [Downeast Athletic Conference title] game against Calais, so it’s working well for me,” said Smith, who used it successfully a few more times in Saturday night’s quarterfinal win over Lubec.

Smith finished with 13 points and nine rebounds.

“A lot of teams focus on me and Kaitlyn Leeman and pack in a 2-3 zone or front me and put three people on me sometimes,” Smith said. “I can go inside or outside now and play high post too.”

Baldacci pulling for new building

Maine Gov. John Baldacci made a brief appearance during the Saturday afternoon Eastern Maine Class B quarterfinal session.

“People love it, it’s a great time and you see a lot of people you know,” Baldacci said moments before the 2:05 MDI-Fort Kent girls game. “It’s the beginning of the spring thaw. This is great. It’s a good opportunity to get around.”

Baldacci said he’s eager to work with Bangor-area politicians and the city council to get going on a replacement for the 50-year-old Auditorium.

“We need to do it,” he said. “It’s a drawing card for the region and most of eastern and northern Maine so I think it’s important for us to do it.”

Bangor trip inspires Warriors

All season long the Fort Kent girls came out of their practices, timeouts and the end of quarters or halves with the cheer “1-2-3 Bangor!” as their motivation.

So when the Warriors made it to Bangor for Saturday’s quarterfinal game against MDI, they went to “1-2-3 Warriors!”

It had been 11 years since the Fort Kent girls program had appeared at the Auditorium, coach Travis Delisle said.

“We’re trying to build a winning tradition in Fort Kent and we’re getting there,” said the second-year coach. “We had a young team last year, our four seniors were juniors, and we knew our best shot to get to Bangor was this year. We made that an early commitment from the onset.”

The Warriors have also been wearing warm-up T-shirts with “95 South” on the back to remind them that they wanted to make the trip south from Fort Kent on the interstate.

“We got those early on in the season,” Delisle said. “We wanted to let everyone know we were playing hard to get down to Bangor.”

Windjammer Crew leads crowd

Camden Hills didn’t bring any cheerleaders to the Auditorium this year, but Windjammer fans have their Crew to lead them during games.

Camden Hills sophomores Miles Turner, Charlie Ash and Matt Rector have been standing at the end of the court with the Windjammers’ captain mascot dancing with the school band, holding up signs and leading the crowd in cheers.

They’re wearing school T-shirts and white sailor hats with the word “crew” embroidered in red.

“It’s sort of our mission to kind of get more spirit in our school,” Turner said during Saturday afternoon’s Class B boys quarterfinal between Camden Hills and Orono.