In Howland Wednesday night, the old adage “the third time is a charm” rang true for the Penobscot Valley boys in George Sereyko Memorial Gym as they finally found a way to defeat Stearns 57-47 in a Class D basketball prelim. The Howlers had lost each of the regular season contests this season against the Minutemen by three points each, 52-49 in Howland on December 9th and 62-59 in Millinocket on January 6th.
Wednesday night didn’t look very promising for the Howlers early, as Shayne Grass hit two early buckets and Michael Robinson knocked down a three just 1:51 in to take a 7-0 lead, forcing Penobscot Valley to burn a timeout. Freshman Aiden Champion provided a spark that seemed to settle the teams nerves a bit, first by finishing a tough layup through traffic in transition then deflecting a pass that was intercepted by Noah Austin that led to a layup to finally get a few points on the board. Then after getting down 11-4, the Howlers went on a 13-3 run to close out the quarter and take a 17-14 lead led by nine points from Ryan Dawson (three 3’s) and six from Austin. Robinson scored eight points in the quarter for the Minutemen.
In the second, a pair of 3’s by Austin and Dawson stretched the lead to seven, and when Austin finished a putback off a missed shot the Howlers increased their lead to 25-16. The PVHS defense was sharp in the quarter, only letting up seven points in the frame four of which were transition layups. The home team went into the break with a 28-21 advantage, with eight of the points in the period coming from Austin.
Penobscot Valley was able to extend to their biggest lead at 11 in the third, led once again by Austin and Dawson who scored six and four points respectively. Grass did his best to keep Stearns in it, knocking down a pair of triples in the quarter. Howlers guard Darius Miranda scored eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter, including 3 free throws to help ice the game down the stretch.
Austin and Dawson both had twenty-point double-doubles, as Austin finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds and Dawson had 20 points (including nailing four 3’s) and 10 boards. Austin also recorded four steals. Miranda had 10 points on the night, with other scoring coming from Champion with four and Max Hamel with two. The Howlers are now 12-7 and have won eight of their last nine games, only dropping a six point decision to Class C Mattanawcook Academy during that time. Penobscot Valley has a quick turnaround, as they will play the number 2 seed (and last years Class C Regional Runner-Up) Madawaska this Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. in the Class D quarterfinals at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. The Howlers return to the CIC for the first time in 3 years. In the 2022/23 season they went in the tourney as the eight seed and fell to number one seed and eventual Northern Maine Champion Calais by eight points.
Stearns had a very impressive season, making a leap from five wins a year ago to winning 12 games this year (12-7). On the night, the junior Grass led the way in scoring with 16 points while the senior Robinson finished with 13. Other scorers from the Minutemen were Jaxson Savage with seven, Lucas Pelkey and Wiley Ward with four each, and Lincoln Daisey with three.
Images are courtesy of Stacey Feldmus Photography. Individual player photos- #0 Noah Austin, #15 Ryan Dawson, and #1 Darius Miranda
