Wednesday morning’s Class C girls quarterfinal session brought out a bevy of college head and assistant coaches, including some of the best former schoolgirl basketball players ever to appear at the Bangor Auditorium – and, arguably, the schoolgirl who is considered the best ever.

The lineup at the coaches’ table included current University of Maine head coach Cindy Blodgett, who lit up the Auditorium as a member of the Lawrence of Fairfield girls team from 1990 to 1994, along with Bowdoin head coach Stefanie Pemper and her assistant Julie Veilleux.

UMaine-Presque Isle head coach Tracy Guerrette was there, as was Husson College of Bangor’s Kissy Walker, and University of Southern Maine assistant Lindsey Welch.

Although there were several standout seniors on view, including Fort Kent’s Marissa Albert and Houlton’s Rachel Foster, who were both named semifinalists for Miss Maine Basketball Wednesday afternoon, it was the junior class that drew the Bowdoin coaches’ interest.

“We’re watching everybody,” said Veilleux, a 2004 UMaine and 2000 Cony of Augusta graduate. “We’re not looking at seniors, per se, but underclassmen. We’re just checking things out. It’s the best week to watch games.”

There were plenty of coaching and playing connections in the group. Veilleux, who played on Cony’s 1998 Class A state title team, and Guerrette, who led Wisdom of St. Agatha to the 1998 Class D state title, played together at Maine.

Welch, who was a member of Nokomis of Newport’s 2001 Class A state championship squad, wrapped up four years playing at USM, where she faced the Bowdoin coaching staff. Walker is a Cony graduate who played at UMaine from 1982 to 1986.

Veilleux has been back to the Auditorium many times over the years and said she likes the atmosphere of all the postseason venues.

“By far it’s the best environment,” she said. “It’s too bad Class A can’t be here. Whenever we played the states in Portland, it seemed so far away.”

Links in a chain

An Eastern Maine Class C quarterfinal loss to No. 5 George Stevens on Wednesday morning didn’t diminish in any way Stearns coach Mike Portwine’s satisfaction with the way his No. 4 Minutemen played – and conducted themselves – this season.

Portwine, holding a thick metal chain made up of 12 links signifying his team, said the squad survived a bumpy season.

“This is my team,” he said, showing off the chain, which he has had since the first day of practice. “We’re all stuck together. And we’ve been playing together all season. They just worked with each other all year. They supported each other all year.”

Things became difficult in late October when two players who would have been starters this year, and their parents, went to the school board in an attempt to have Portwine fired, he said. The issue was playing time, he said, and a petition calling for the school board to let him go circulated among his players.

Several of his current players actually signed it, but one, junior Samantha Lyons, stood up for Portwine during a televised school board meeting and said she changed her mind. Her teammate, sophomore Rebecca Leavitt, stood up with Lyons.

“[Lyons] is my Jimmy,” Portwine said, referring to a scene in the movie “Hoosiers” in which a player speaks up for a coach. “… I always had the support of the school board and the administration. It was just a couple of kids and parents.”

Even after the season started, more trouble arose. Portwine’s home was damaged in a fire on Dec. 12. Then, at the end of January, starting guard Adriana Eurich suffered a season-ending knee injury.

But the Minutemen persevered and finished the season with a 16-4 record for the No. 5 seed despite returning no starters from last year. And Portwine, who wrapped up his fourth season, will have his entire roster back with the exception of senior center Megan Lynch.

3’s Company

At halftime of Wednesday afternoon’s Eastern Maine Class B semifinal between Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln and the Maranacook boys from Readfield, Maranacook had already canned 10 3-pointers.

The Class B record for team 3’s in one game was 11 – shared by three teams (1997 Stearns Minutemen of Millinocket, 1998 Mount Desert Island Trojans, and 2004 Erskine Academy Eagles).

With 31/2 minutes left in the game, the record belonged to just one team when Maranacook’s Devin Gerrity canned his fifth 3-pointer of the game to give Maranacook a total of 12.

A whopping 21 3-pointers were made between the two teams as the combined to shoot 47.7 percent from beyond the arc.

It was quite a turnaround for the Black Bears after their quarterfinal squeaker win over Rockland.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if our struggles in the first game maybe made them think we weren’t as good a shooting team as we are,” said senior guard Will Bardaglio, who shot 3-for-8 from 3-point range. “We all struggled with our shooting the last game, but we worked on it all practice long and shot really well today.”