An electrifying crowd came out to see the Messalonskee girls basketball team bury Brewer 53-45 in an Eastern A preliminary game Tuesday night in Oakland.

The Eagles sank Brewer for third time this season, this time winning 53-45 in an Eastern A prelim game Tuesday night in Oakland. Messalonskee played well and executed its game plan, which was focused on containing Brewer junior guard Leah Jackson. While the Eagles were victorious on the court, the fans were big winners, too.

According to Messalonskee athletic director Jim Marascio, about 450 fans (close to a capacity crowd) filled the Messalonskee gymnasium Tuesday night. It was a terrific crowd.
Some highlights:
A group of students stood the entire game on the back row of one of the bleacher sections, each dressed in tie-dyed T-shirts with the letters M-E-S-S-A-L-O-N-S-K-E-E emblazoned on them. They even had someone wearing the exclamation point, a nice touch.

A live student band played before, during and after the game. There’s nothing like a little Guns ’N Roses to fire up a crowd, although the rendition of “Born to be Wild” — a song written by Mars Bonfire but mostly associated with the rock band Steppenwolf — needs work. Sorry.

Brewer brought a full cheerleading squad and a vocal contingent of fans, who came close to filling one of the six sections in the bleachers. Pretty impressive.
Curious to see what the Civic Center will look like Friday when Lawrence and Messalonskee tussle again ...