YSCC Basketball Tournament Quarterfinal Recap

Auburn, ME – It was straight chalk in the YSCC Men's and Women's Basketball Tournament quarterfinals, with no upsets through the first four playoff games.

The women's games, played earlier in the week and hosted by the better seed, saw #3 SMCC take care of #6 Great Bay, 92-47, while #4 ACPHS handled #5 WOLBI, 65-45.

The Seawolves were paced by five different scorers reaching double figures. Mckenna Johnson (13), Julia Reed (11), Ashley Mullen (10), Taylor Renna (10), and Skyler Tinker (10) helped the hosts pick up the victory. The Herons hung around with a game-high 16 points from Mack McNutt but were held to just 18 points in the second half as a team. Renna and Tinker completed double-doubles off the bench for Southern Maine with 10 and 12 rebounds respectively.

The Panthers advanced to the semifinals by simply outscoring the Huskies in all four quarters. Both teams' YSCC All-Conference selections came to play. Samantha Howland and all-conference pick Adora Cho had 23 and 20 points respectively to pace Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, while Ava Gaspie added 10 points. Word of Life's all-conference choice, Ellie Rishel, was outstanding. The freshman, who was also an all-conference selection on the soccer field, put up 19 points and 17 rebounds to keep WOLBI in the game.

The men's match-ups took place Friday night in Auburn, ME at CMCC's Kirk Hall, and were both tales of two halves. The #4 seed SMCC defeated #5 PSC, 86-71, and #3 VTSU-Randolph ousted #6 GBCC, 84-58.

Southern Maine raced out to a 12-2 lead before Paul Smith's countered with a 13-2 run to briefly take the lead in the first half. However, the Seawolves pulled away before the break and managed their lead in the second half. SMCC got a combined 52 points from three of their starters, with Sean Bosia (20), Sam DeWitt (18), and Ellis Macea (14) reaching double figures. Paul Smith's YSCC All-Conference pick Yashiro Hurst Jr. was outstanding for the Bobcats, scoring 26 points and dealing out five assists. Manny Belcher chipped in 16 and O'neil Mason scored 10, but it wasn't enough to overcome the 15-point deficit at halftime.

The night's second quarterfinal saw Vermont State University-Randolph and Great Bay battling tooth and nail through the first half, heading into the break tied 34-34 in a rematch of last year's championship contest. But the second half was a wildly different ball game with the Knights outscoring the Herons 40-6 through the first 15 minutes after halftime. YSCC Player of the Year Jaylon Calvin led all scorers with 18 points and pulled down a game-high eight rebounds. Jaden Clark (16), Shandon J-D Anderson (12), and T.J. Wilson (11) all hit double figures as well to avenge last year's defeat. Jaylen Shelly had 10 points and six rebounds for the Herons in the loss. All-Conference Honorable Mention Roderick Dominique had five points in the first half but was held scoreless after the break by the Knights' defensive effort.

The action continues on Saturday with four semifinal games. The women's tournament resumes with #2 UMA facing #3 SMCC at noon before #1 seed CMCC takes on #4 ACPHS at 2:00 pm. The men's teams then take the floor with #1 CMCC battling archrival #4 SMCC at 4:00 pm, before #2 UMA rounds out the night, tipping off against #3 VTSU-Randolph at 6:00 pm. All games can be watched on the PPV live-stream on the YSCC Sports Network.