Camden Hills and Maranacook will challenge best Big East B squads

One measure of the depth of talent within the Eastern Maine Class B boys basketball ranks is that as many as 13 different teams entered the final days of the regular season with a chance to get to double figures in victories this season.

In fact, the top nine teams entered their final games assured of no worse than an 11-7 record.

But that shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Eastern B picked up three teams – Old Town, Gardiner and Erskine Academy of South China – from the Class A ranks, and all three have proven quite competitive while earning trips to postseason play.

But while there is considerable depth, the discussion of who will emerge from this regional tournament begins in familiar territory – Maranacook of Readfield and Camden Hills of Rockport.

Maranacook of Readfield, the 2006 state champion, is motivated by last year’s sudden departure, when the top-ranked Black Bears were ousted by No. 8 Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield in the regional quarterfinals.

There were extenuating circumstances, for sure, as top perimeter shooting threat Will Bardaglio was sidelined by mononucleosis, but it remains an opportunity lost for coach Rob Schmidt and the Black Bears.

Bardaglio is back this year, along will fellow four-year starting guards Ryan Martin and Mike Poulin. Martin, a two-time All-Maine choice, has in particular proven almost impossible to stop, his lightning-quick moves earning him plenty of points, trips to the free-throw line and interest from college programs at all levels.

The Black Bears have had an occasional close call this year, particularly a 50-44 survival of Belfast, but came up big in its biggest test, a 76-67 midseason win at Camden Hills in which Maranacook built a big second-half lead and cruised to victory behind Martin’s 29 points.

But Camden Hills lost its first meeting against Maranacook last year, too, and rebounded to defeat the Black Bears in their rematch – the teams met just once this winter – and go on to win its seventh Eastern Maine championship in the last 14 years before falling to Mountain Valley of Rumford 48-38 in the state final.

That ended a run of six straight years that a team from the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference went on to win the Class B state championship, but the KVAC still owns the last six Eastern Maine crowns.

Maranacook and Camden Hills are the likeliest KVAC teams to extend the streak of regional supremacy, but the Big East Conference also figures to have a major say in who represents Eastern Maine in this year’s state final.

The Big East’s regular-season roar has been heard loudest from Aroostook County, where Presque Isle and Caribou have earned top-four finishes in the Eastern B regular-season standings.

Presque Isle was poised to earn the No. 1 seed and with it the lone preliminary-round bye in a division that sends 15 teams to postseason play this winter. The Wildcats feature an impressive 1-2 punch of senior center Adam Kingsbury and junior forward Russ Mortland that blends physical inside play with solid work from the perimeter.

Caribou boasts three top-notch seniors in guards Kyle Corrigan and Jarryd Rossignol and center Ben Rosser, giving the Vikings their own inside-outside game to go with solid team defense.

Another threat from the Big East should be Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln, an Eastern Maine finalist from a year ago that is led by the conference’s two leading scorers in senior guard Derek Libbey and junior guard Brady Vose. Libbey in particular has developed into one of the region’s top players, able to create his own shot or create open opportunities for his teammates.