Gabe Lash leaps toward the basket during Medomak Valley’s 50-40 loss to York in the Class B South regional championship game on Friday, Feb. 21 at the Portland Expo. Lash scored nine points and pulled down 11 rebounds in his final high school game. (Mic LeBel photo)
The Medomak Valley boys basketball team lost to York 50-40 in the Class B South regional championship game on Friday, Feb. 21 at the Portland Expo in Portland.
York advanced to the Class B state championship game and will square off against Caribou, the Class B North champion, on Saturday, March 1 at 2:45 p.m. at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
Both the No. 1 seed Medomak Valley and No. 2 seed York were 20-0 going into the contest. It was the first time two undefeated teams had met in a boys regional basketball final since 2011, setting the stage for an epic battle between two of the best teams in the state.
“They were the most physical and quickest team we’ve faced this season,” said Medomak Valley head coach Nick DePatsy. “They’re a good team, and we’re a good team, but we didn’t shoot the ball well and we had big turnovers at crucial times. It was just a couple breaks here or there and a couple missed hoops and foul shots that made the difference.”
The game was a defensive battle early on, with the Wildcats eventually outshooting the Panthers to claim a 14-9 advantage at the end of the first quarter. Medomak took a slim lead three times in the opening minutes, but the Wildcats netted seven straight points to take a five-point lead into the first quarter break.
York increased its lead to seven early in the second quarter before the Panthers clawed their way back with six straight points as Gabe Lash drained a pair of baskets and Rocco DePatsy banged home a shot off the glass to pull within one.
Lucas Bouchard responded with a field goal for York and Lash countered that by draining two free throws at the charity stripe. Mason Nguyen nailed a 3-pointer, the only one of the game, to give Medomak a brief two-point lead. York’s Reece MacDonald made the final basket of the quarter to tie the score 20-20 heading into halftime.
“Defensively, we did a good job, and at the half the score was where we wanted it,” Nick DePatsy said. “During the break we talked about being more patient, to keep the ball off the floor, and to try to pass more and get them to work. At times in the second half we did that very well. But our lack of execution hurt us at times, too.”
In the third quarter, York took the lead three times, and on each occasion Medomak kept pace to tie the game up before the Wildcats ended the frame with a momentum-changing 8-1 run to take a seven-point lead, 34-27, heading into the final stanza. MacDonald and Bouchard led the Wildcats rally with six points each during the quarter.
“Don’t try to get it all back at once, just pick away at it,” DePatsy said he told his squad heading into the final quarter. “You can’t get it all back at once and if you overextend trying too hard the game can open up the other way. I thought we did a good job of not allowing that to happen.”
The tall and agile York defense continued to clamp down on the Panthers and the Wildcats increased their advantage to nine points with four minutes remaining in the game. Often, teams may turn to 3-point shooting as a strategy to spark a rally and close a big gap, but York’s extremely quick defense took that option away from the Panthers.
“We’re not a big 3-point shooting team anyway, but you have got to credit their defense,” said DePatsy. “They closed down on us on outside shot opportunities, and we closed down on theirs, too. It became a game of rotations and stepping up and we had to execute and make a good pass, but ultimately York did a better job at that.”
Medomak Valley sparked a mini-rally in the second half of the fourth quarter to make the game interesting, as Nguyen and Kristian Schumann scored back-to-back hoops to pull the Panthers within five points with 1:50 to play.
Lucas Ketchum sank a basket for York to boost the Wildcats’ lead back to seven before Medomak Valley gained a golden opportunity to stage a late comeback. Gabe Lash was fouled hard and sent to the line, and Bouchard fouled out and earned a technical foul for arguing the call.
Lash missed both of his foul shots and Schumann made one out of two for the technical to narrow the York lead down to six. The Panthers got the ball due to the technical foul, but turned it over and York was back in control.
After the Wildcats failed to convert on their trip up the court, Lash was fouled again, but missed both free throws, and York maintained their six-point lead and built on it from there.
“At that point in the game, fatigue sets in and mental toughness, frustration, things like that,” said DePatsy. “It’s hard, we got their lead down to seven and if things went perfect we had a chance to go down three and to have the ball with a chance to tie it. Those are good free throw shooters for us, but the shots just didn’t drop in today.”
Nguyen and Ketchum traded hoops to keep the York lead at six before MacDonald hit a pair of free throws and scored a basket to account for York’s final 10-point winning margin.
“It was a great year, we had a great team, and in a game like this, it is what it is,” DePatsy said. “Both of the teams you saw today are very good and very balanced, but they might have been a little quicker than us today. We just had crucial turnovers throughout the game and they capitalized.”
DePatsy also had praise for Bouchard, York’s tall, physical forward who scored 16 points in the game including big baskets down the stretch when the game was on the line.
“They made some very tough shots in traffic underneath the basket while we were in really good defensive positions,” DePatsy said. “We held their best scorer Bouchard down pretty well for most of the game, but you have to give him credit as he hit some big shots – some tough shots.”
Also scoring for York were MacDonald with 14 (1R, 1S), Ryan Cummins 9 (9R, 4A, 1S), Jack Joyce 7 (4A, 5A, 1B), and Ketchum 4 (8R, 3S).
Scoring for Medomak Valley were Nguyen with 12 (5R, 1S), DePatsy 10 (7R, 1A, 2B), Lash 9 (11R, 2A, 1B), Schumann 7 (1R), and Owen Dostie 2 (3R, 1A). Luke Cheesman contributed a rebound and Vishal Mellor had one steal.
