Although baseball and softball rule the summer for most Maine sports fans, diehard basketball fans had plenty of good action to cheer for as high school players from 18 Maine teams descended on Augusta to compete in the Cony Summer League tournament on Wednesday, July 23.
After 12 games throughout the summer, Medomak Valley had the top record in the league and earned the No. 1 seed heading into the tournament. Lincoln Academy was the only other local team that competed in the summer league, securing the No. 8 seed among the 18 teams.
Landon Morrison leaps to the hoop uncontested during Medomak’s 90-49 thumping of Mt. Ararat during a quarterfinals playoff game at the Cony Summer League championship tournament on Wednesday, July 23 in Augusta. (Mic LeBel photo)
Medomak throttled the 17th seed Mt. Ararat 90-49 in the first round of play on July 23 and then defeated ninth seed Nokomis 61-50 in a quarterfinals game later in the evening to advance to the semifinals on Monday, July 28.
Lincoln Academy blew a 10-point first half lead and was bounced from the tournament by Nokomis in the first round on July 23 by a final score of 53-49. Had the Eagles won, they would have squared off against Medomak that same evening in the quarterfinals.
Rising seniors Michael Mitchell and Chase Ober, who both saw some varsity action last season for the Eagles, made the biggest impact in the game and Malachi Farrin and Deklan DiMauro stood out the most among the younger players.
“We did well in the league considering we graduated 10 guys and have a young team without much varsity experience,” said Eagles coach Ryan Ball. “I’m optimistic because a lot of the new guys came from our JV and ninth grade teams, which both had outstanding seasons. We got off to a strong start against Nokomis and had some good moments, but we’re young and made mistakes in the second half that cost us in a close game against a good team.”
Camden Hills beat No. 4 seed Brunswick 47-37 in a quarterfinal game on July 23 to set up a highly competitive tilt against Medomak.
The Windjammers, who featured highly touted rising senior Nolan Ames, outlasted the Panthers 55-49 to advance to the tournament final, where they beat No. 3 seed Gardiner 53-45 to earn the championship title. “We missed a ton of layups in that Camden Hills game,” said Panthers coach Nick DePatsy. “Overall, it’s been a good summer for this group as we only lost a couple of games. The kids have played a lot and got a little fatigued (in the semifinal loss).”
Much like last summer at the Cony Summer League tournament when Medomak had incoming Rocco DePatsy from Cheverus appear for the first time in a Panthers basketball uniform, this year it was 2024-2025 Oceanside High School rising senior Connor Kingsbury who suited up and excelled for Medomak. Micah Fagonde, who played for Camden Hills in 2023-2024 before missing last season due to injury, also played for the Panthers and made a big impact in the summer tourney games.
Four local players were named to the Cony Summer League all-star team on Monday, July 21 leading up to the start of the tournament. Medomak Valley rising seniors Owen Dostie and Mason Nguyen were joined by Panthers junior Kollin Donlin on the second team with Lincoln’s Chase Ober. The all-stars played on Monday, July 28 after the league championship final.
