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For first-year Fort Fairfield High School Varsity Boys Basketball coach, Todd Alley, a trip to the tournament in Bangor is a perfect way to end a season. Even more so, since the last time the boys team attended the tournament was in 1995.

The Tiger team had been improving over the past couple of years and Coach Alley recognized that. “At the start of the season, it looked like we had the talent. The only issue was whether or not we could play team basketball,” said Alley. “There are plenty of athletes on this team. The kids worked very hard and improved in the areas they were weak in.”

The quarter-final game against the Ashland Hornets was played at the Bangor Auditorium on the afternoon of Monday, February 18.

After an early 1st quarter lead for Ashland, the Tigers were able to get their bearings and get down to business, taking the lead in the 2nd quarter and never giving it up for the rest of the game.

Top Tiger scorers were; sophomore, Josh Booth with 15 points and junior, Matt Cresenzo with 10. Both also hit a three pointer early in the game but most of the team scoring was on the inside of that three point line.

At half-time, it was still anybody’s game at 33-26, a margin that remained through the end of the 3rd quarter.

In the fourth, Booth scored six of his fifteen shots and Junior, Austin Dufour got a couple of his own. With the Hornets getting tired, the Tigers took a commanding lead in the final minutes of play, with a game-ending tally of 61-48. On hand to view this historic game for the Tigers, was #1 Tigers fan, Charlie Lockhart, who watched the game with Larry Gardner and Ruel Flannery. Charlie is currently living in Bangor, but rarely missed a game while living in Fort Fairfield. He now follows the teams with his subscription to the Fort Fairfield Journal.

With the win against the Hornets secured, the #5 ranked Tigers now faced the #1 ranked Central Aroostook Panthers in semi-final play on Thursday.

“Central Aroostook is a very fast team and like the Tigers, is nine or ten players deep, so they can rotate out their players and keep them rested,” said Alley. “We knew we had to slow the game down if we were going to have a chance.”

The Panthers took an early lead in the first quarter with a score of 20-13. In the second quarter, the Tigers stole that lead from them and advanced 10 more points. However, senior, Cameron York was unstoppable as he scored 44 game points for the Panthers, yielding them a win of 75-61.

“Foul trouble was the key to this game’s loss for us,” said Alley. “We got into foul trouble early and Central Aroostook shot very well. As far as defense, Central Aroostook’s team is the model for everyone to aspire to. They are a great ball club.”

For the Tigers, senior, Ryan Noyes was the game’s score leader with 14 points, followed by senior, Cody Closson, 12 points and freshman, Travis Noyes with 10.

The Tigers will be losing five seniors this year, but Alley remains optimistic. “As much as we’ll miss the seniors, they took the lead this year, got us headed in the right direction and have given the underclassmen a taste of victory. We hope to build on that in next year’s season.”