Tiebreaker gives Rams home field Playoffs Friday night

Home-field advantage is a reward for a regular-season well played, but it’s no guarantee of future success.

A look back at the 2002 Pine Tree Conference Class A quarterfinals provides ample evidence of that, given that three of the four visiting teams won those first-round games and advanced to the semifinals.

Still, Bangor, Brunswick, Gardiner and Mt. Blue of Farmington all are quite pleased to be hosting their playoff openers Friday night.

Bangor, the No. 1 seed, is unbeaten at home, with victories over Edward Little of Auburn, Skowhegan, Lawrence of Fairfield and Cony of Augusta – as well as a with a 28-6 preseason win over No. 8 Lewiston, the team the Rams will face Friday in a 7 p.m. start at Cameron Stadium.

Bangor (7-1) earned the top seed in a tiebreaker over No. 2 Brunswick (7-1). The teams were tied under the original seeding formula, the Crabtree Point System, with Bangor getting an additional boost late in the season when Windham – a team Brunswick defeated – had to forfeit a win over Lawrence – a team Bangor defeated – because it used an ineligible player.

Because Bangor and Brunswick did not meet this fall, the next tiebreaker was the Heal Point System, where coach Mark Hackett’s Rams had the advantage.

In other quarterfinals, No. 7 Cony (3-5) visits Brunswick, No. 6 Oxford Hills (5-3) is at No. 3 Gardiner (7-1) and No. 5 Skowhegan (5-3) is at No. 4 Mt. Blue (6-2).

Only two of the games are sequels from the regular season: Gardiner defeated Oxford Hills 20-3 at Hoch Field in Gardiner on Oct. 17, while Mt. Blue topped Skowhegan 28-6 at Caldwell Field in Farmington last Friday night.

In fact, that regular-season victory by Mt. Blue over Skowhegan was the determining factor in the Cougars earning the No. 4 seed and home-field advantage over the No. 5 Indians in the rematch after the teams finished tied in the Crabtree points.

Western A quarterfinals scheduled for Saturday have No. 8 Massabesic (4-4) at top-ranked Biddeford (8-0), No. 7 Marshwood (5-3) at No. 2 Deering, No. 6 Cheverus (5-3) at No. 3 Portland (6-2) and No. 5 Bonny Eagle (5-3) at No. 4 Noble (6-2).

Three of these games are rematches, with Biddeford defeating Massabesic 43-26 in Week 4, Bonny Eagle edging Noble 14-12 in Week 6 and Portland handling Cheverus 41-14 in Week 7.

Caribou is Casavant Country

Caribou High School boys basketball coach Chris Casavant has dipped into the family gene pool to find his new varsity assistant for the 2003-2004 season – his youngest brother, Nick.

Nick Casavant, 20, was a four-year varsity player at Presque Isle High School. As a senior he was a 2002 NEWS All-Maine third-team selection after averaging 16.7 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.9 steals per game to lead the Wildcats to the Eastern A semifinals.

Nick played basketball last season at the University of Southern Maine, but he has since transferred to the University of Maine-Presque Isle where he is pursuing a degree in criminal justice with plans to join middle brother Matt as a Maine state trooper one day.

“One thing about Nick is that he has played an awful lot of basketball and seen a lot of basketball,” said Chris Casavant, the Vikings’ third-year head coach. “He played varsity for four years at Presque Isle, and he played four years of AAU basketball and went to four national tournaments.”

For many years Nick also accompanied his father, Bill Casavant, a longtime coach and radio broadcaster with WCXU in the County, on basketball trips and would keep the scorebook during games.

“He’s 20 years old, and he’s been sitting on basketball benches for probably 16 of those years,” Chris Casavant said. “I think it will be a good fit.

“I totally trust him to make suggestions both during practices and games. We think a lot alike about how things should be done, and I have a lot of respect for what he thinks about the game.”

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net