Mattanawcook Academy’s return to the Class B ranks in boys basketball last winter was a success.

Coach Rick Sinclair’s Lynx earned homecourt advantage for the preliminary playoff round, then used that edge to defeat perennial power Camden Hills of Rockport to earn a trip to the Bangor Auditorium and the regional quarterfinals.

But graduation took the bulk of the playing rotation, leaving three veterans and a host of newcomers to the prime-time scene for the Lincoln school.

It hasn’t mattered. Mattanawcook is off to a strong start, taking a 6-0 record into Tuesday night’s game at Bucksport.

MA’s latest win was its most impressive, as it rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit for a 70-52 win at Ellsworth.

Defense was crucial to that effort as the Lynx limited the Eagles to 17 second-half points. But the win also showed off their offensive versatility. Mattanawcook more than matched Ellsworth’s up-tempo desires in the very next game after winning a battle of patience during a 37-26 victory at Caribou.

“We’ve been able to play at either tempo so far,” said Sinclair. “We have good enough athletes to play up-tempo, and good enough ballhandlers to be able to play a half-court tempo and get some good things in the half-court set.”

The Lynx have yielded an average of just 38 points per game to date, a statistic that has enabled the team to persevere through any offensive growing pains.

“Defense is what we talk about,” said Sinclair. “We’ve had some games when we haven’t shot as well as we would have liked to, but because we played good defense, we were able to keep ourselves in it and manage to win in the end.”

MA is led by junior guard Derek Libbey, a player whose value last winter was perhaps best reflected in the fact he was named second-team all-conference despite not starting a single game.

The other veterans are 6-foot-3 senior Isaac Young and senior swingman Shey Gardner, who missed the preseason while recuperating from a football-related injury.

“Shey can play anywhere from the 1 [point guard] to the 4 [power forward],” said Sinclair. “And he can do it at any moment. He knows every position on the floor and what everybody’s role is.”

That trio has been bolstered by a group of less experienced players who got their varsity feet wet while the Lynx played their first four games of the season at home.

That contingent is led by sophomore Brady Vose, a 1,000-yard rusher in football who missed his freshman basketball season with a broken ankle. He led the team in scoring in its season-opening win against Foxcroft and came up with eight points, eight rebounds, and eight assists against Ellsworth.

At 6-3, Jeremy Langevin has joined with Young and Tyler White to give the Lynx production in the post, while Jake Smith is another versatile performer.

“The way we had looked at it was that Caribou was going to be very good coming back this season and Ellsworth was going to be tough, so with our injuries in the preseason, we thought if we were 3-3 or 4-2 that would be pretty good, because we knew we had four home games and you’ve to take care of those,” Sinclair said.

“But we won both of those games [Ellsworth and Caribou], too, and the best thing about it is that we’re still getting better.”

Portland’s Treister opts for UM

The University of Maine football team has received a recruiting boost from the southern part of the state with the recent verbal commitment of Portland High School quarterback Chris Treister to join the Black Bears next fall.

Over the past two seasons, Treister has passed for 3,650 yards and 36 touchdowns, including 1,846 yards and 18 touchdowns this fall while completing 60 percent of his attempts.

He also rushed for 574 yards and scored eight touchdowns in helping lead Portland to a 5-4 record. The Bulldogs advanced to the Western Maine Class A quarterfinals before losing to Marshwood of Eliot 19-0. Treister was sidelined early in the first quarter of that game with a back injury.

Along with running backs Aaron Champagne of Lawrence of Fairfield and Jared Turcotte of Lewiston, Treister is a finalist for this year’s Fitzpatrick Trophy, to be presented to Maine’s top senior football player during a banquet in Portland on Jan. 14.

Treister also reportedly considered Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire before accepting Maine’s scholarship offer.

He will officially accept that scholarship by signing his NCAA National Letter of Intent in early February.

Treister follows in the footsteps of Quinton Porter as a Portland quarterback who went on to a Division I college future. Porter played at Div. I-A Boston College and currently is on the roster of the NFL’s Houston Texans.

Maine, a Div. I-AA program, finished 6-5 overall in 2006, 5-3 in Atlantic 10 Conference play.

The eligibility of all student-athletes is contingent upon admission to the University of Maine and compliance with all NCAA rules, including registration with the NCAA Clearinghouse.