Plumbing problem fixed at Bangor Auditorium

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BANGOR – Officials at the Bangor Auditorium had a busy morning as they had to deal with a backed-up pipe that forced the shutdown of showers and toilets in the two locker rooms, the women’s public restroom, and the referees’ changing room.

The women’s restroom was closed, and fans, players, and referees were forced to use the facilities in the Bangor Civic Center. Players and referees could not use the showers.

Bass Park director Mike Dyer said the problem was discovered at about 10:30 a.m. when there was some backup in the restroom and the locker rooms.

“Apparently, and I say apparently because we couldn’t actually get into the pipe and see what was there, there was a blockage somewhere in the 4-inch sewer than runs down the left side of the building,” Dyer said.

Crews from the city of Bangor cleaned out the main sewer line that runs down the middle of the Auditorium floor, Dyer said, and a private contractor ran a snake through the 4-inch line.

The cause of the blockage is unknown, but the problem was likely related to the showers.

“Whether it was stuff that gets down because of the number of showers that are being taken or the amount of stuff that inadvertently ends up in the sewer lines when you have a bunch of kids in and out of the locker rooms, we’re not sure what it was,” Dyer said.

The public restroom re-opened during the 2:05 p.m. Eastern Maine Class B girls semifinal game.

The Bangor Fire Department came to the Auditorium in case their pumps were needed, but Dyer said there was never that much water backed up.

“Quite honestly I don’t think they were interested in running that through their system,” Dyer added.

According to Auditorium records, a similar situation last occurred in 1997.

Hawks shine with Erb looking on

The Hermon girls drew lots of fans for their Eastern Maine Class B semifinal against Maranacook Wednesday, but one spectator has had a special interest in the team.

Don Erb, who works at the scorers’ table during tournament games, coached the Hawks from 1998 to 2002. He gave up the post last season because he had moved over to a teaching position at Bangor High.

Margie Deabay, who served as Erb’s assistant for four years, gained the job when Erb left. Deabay coached Hermon to its first semifinal berth since 1994, the year the team won an Eastern Maine Class B title.

The No. 7 Hermon girls were glad Erb got to see them play so well in the quarterfinal, a 49-46 upset win over No. 2 Camden Hills, because the only other game he had been to was a 49-46 loss to Ellsworth.

“It’s very exciting because he saw us in our first game and that was a horrible game,” said senior guard Jessie Wiggin.

Erb was excited to see the girls play in the tournament, too.

“I’ve known Jessie and Megan [Garland] for four years and I’ve seen them grow and get better,” he said. “You can see the difference. … It’s nice to think you had a hand in that just like you would in the classroom. But it was fun to watch them and they played hard.”

Ivey recalls 1994 game

Hodgdon girls coach Wendy Ivey knows from experience how quickly things can happen during tournament games.

Ivey’s Hawks, the No. 4 seed in Eastern Maine Class C, battled back from an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat No. 5 Narraguagus of Harrington 54-51 in overtime.

It made the first-year coach think back to a game during the 1994 tournament, which was her sophomore season playing for the Hawks. No. 4 Hodgdon had a 38-26 lead at the start of the fourth quarter but No. 5 Limestone emerged with a 59-43 upset victory.

“It was a total turnaround in just a few minutes,” said Ivey, who had 11 points, nine rebounds and five assists in the loss. “I thought about it earlier this week. In Bangor anything can happen and that’s what happened to us that year.”

On Wednesday Hodgdon was ahead 44-41 with less than five seconds left when Jen Strout of Narraguagus nailed a 3-pointer, sending the game into overtime.

“Just having that little bit of time left and having that little bit of a lead in regulation, I knew it wasn’t over,” Ivey said. “It did bring back some memories, but I was really confident. The girls had their heads on straight.”

Victory overshadows milestone

Dexter High School senior guard Travis Patterson said he didn’t give much pregame thought to the 1,500-point milestone, which he eclipsed with a 31-point performance in Wednesday’s 77-49 Eastern Maine Class C quarterfinal win over Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln.

“I wasn’t really thinking about it. I knew I needed four points to get it,” said Patterson who hit three jumpers in the first 3:45 to rid him of the Bangor Auditorium butterflies.

“Those took away the jitters. I stopped thinking about it as being at the Auditorium and treated it as a regular season game,” said Patterson.

The 19-year-old Patterson, who will attend Liberty University (Va.) in the fall, said he was surprised by the margin of victory in lieu of the fact they split regular-season games against the Lynx.

“I didn’t expect this. I thought if we were going to win, it would be a close game throughout,” said Patterson.

Brewer High School boys basketball coach and former Bangor High standout Mark Reed played basketball at Liberty.