Bangor’s WABI-TV (Channel 5) ended its high school basketball broadcasting season on a strong note with an excellent overall effort in producing and broadcasting the Eastern Maine Class A championships Saturday.

In the Cony-Lawrence girls game – hailed as the game of the season by some – play-by-play man Mike Hale and analyst Brenda Beckwith were both up to the challenge.

Hale’s delivery was crisp and his play-calling was up-to-the-second and non-overbearing. He also made sure to continually update viewers on the score and how much time was left to play.

Beckwith, a former Winslow girls coach, offered good insight into each team’s game plan and quickly pointed out plays on the screen as they developed, many times using instant replay to better explain what happened.

The production crew used (not overused) replays only to highlight several key plays. Also, graphics were easy to read and didn’t cover up game action on the screen.

The mikes were turned over to WABI radio’s Jon Small and Old Town Middle School teacher Willie Gavett for play-by-play and color, respectively, in the Lawrence-Medomak Valley boys game.

Small let the action dictate his excitement – raising his voice during a particulary good or exciting play – but didn’t get too caught up in making the game more exciting than it appeared.

Gavett, as a former coach at Orono High School, proved he hasn’t forgotten the X’s and O’s from his coaching days as he broke down the action quickly and described simply the plays behind the plays.

Some other noteworthy items:

BEST CRITICISM: “You cannot allow Cindy to take an uncontested jump shot. Put a hand in her face, make her put the ball on the floor… something,” said Beckwith, talking about Cony’s lax defense against Cindy Blodgett.

LAMEST INTERVIEW: WABI sportscaster Tim Throckmorton’s questions to Maine Basketball Commissioner Pete Webb during halftime of the girls game:

“Isn’t this exciting? Do you enjoy these games? and Is this still a thrill for you even after seeing 30 years’ worth of games?”

If this stuff were any more vanilla, it wouldn’t have any flavor at all.

MOST REPETITIVE SHOT: This is an easy one. I’d be rich if I had a dime for every time I saw Lawrence coach Bruce Cooper being interviewed with one or more of his children on his shoulder or lap.

JAY LENO AWARD: To Gavett, who said, “These are big bodies. There are collisions out there that if Clinton passes his health plan – even that won’t cover it.”

BEST FEATURE: Throckmorton’s retrospective piece on Blodgett was accentuated by the musical score – for example, Whitney Houston singing “I faced the pain” during the replay of Blodgett’s on-court collision requiring nine stitches in her forehead.

TOO MANY COOKS?: Gavett, talking about Lawrence Coach Mike McGee’s bench assistants, said, “Mike is looking at his entourage on the bench, I think he has eight people. Eight people with him, I think that has to be something of a tournament record.” – – –

Former CBS baseball announcers Sean McDonough and Jim Kaat will be broadcasting Major League games for ESPN this season.

McDonough, WSBK-TV’s Boston Red Sox play-by-play man, will share play-by-play with Chris Berman on early Wednesday night games. Buck Martinez will handle analysis.

Former major league pitcher and current network color man Jim Kaat, who will be splitting time with Joe Morgan as an analyst during late Wednesday games, will pair up with Dave Campbell.

McDonough was CBS’ lead play-by-play man before the network lost the Major League Baseball contract to NBC and ABC – The Baseball Network – this season.

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WEEI (AM) of Boston, flagship radio station of the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins, has been sold by the Celtics organization to Back Bay Broadcasters Inc. – owned by Ross W. Elder of North Scituate and brothers Peter H. Ottmar and James Ottmar of North Attleboro.

Elder already owns radio stations in Connecticut and Maine while the Ottmars own two Attleboro radio stations.

The new ownership group plans to drop Celtics broadcasts after this season. Game rights will be picked up by American Radio Systems – owners of Boston radio stations WRKO (AM), WHDH (AM), and WBMX (FM). The new stations have stronger signals, allowing broadcasts to be heard beyond the Boston area.

Back Bay Broadcasters is uncertain whether it will continue broadcasting Bruins games. There have been no discussions yet between Back Bay and the Bruins organization.