Waterville Senior High School basketball star Morgan Frame was named the 2008-2009 Gatorade Maine Girls Basketball Player of the Year on Thursday.

A 6-foot-1 center, Frame led the Panthers to their 66th straight win and third straight Class B state title last month.

She averaged 21 points, 16.2 rebounds, four blocked shots and 3.1 steals per game. Frame is also a finalist for Miss Maine Basketball, which will be awarded on Friday.

"Frame is a winner and she does whatever it takes to win," Waterville coach Ted Rioux said. "She will not accept defeat. Her performance in the state title game was a reflection of that."

A lot of people have been wondering how close the Waterville girls basketball team is to a state record for consecutive wins in girls basketball. The Valley boys won 101 consecutive games, but the top girls streak in Maine is more of a mystery.

You could forgive Deering girls basketball coach Mike Murphy if he felt mostly relief after the Rams defeated Messalonskee, 49-34, to win the Class A state title on Saturday night.

For those who missed it and for the fortunate ones who didn't, Rangeley and Valley put on a good show in the Western D girls championship game Saturday afternoon at the Augusta Civic Center.

When Allie Hammond stepped to the line with 10.3 seconds remaining in the Western D regional semifinals, she felt like she'd been there before.

The 33-29 final score in favor of John Bapst makes it look like an ugly game, but this was actually a good one. Here are a few leftovers:

Hannah Fenwick heard it all night.

Congratulations to the Oak Hill girls basketball team for its 10-8 season, one of their best in recent memory.

You wouldn't know it by looking at the temperature, but basketball season is almost over and the quarterfinals start in 11 days. Here's a look at some teams that are surging and struggling as they head into the postseason.

I've been critical of Waterville's fan support in the past. The fans they have are great, but it just seems like there should be a lot more of them. Friday night against Mt. View, the fans showed up.

Skowhegan sophomore guard Zoe Pease, who is already wearing a brace on her right knee because of an ACL injury, went down in a heap late in Tuesday's game against Nokomis.

The Heal points for girls basketball came out earlier today. I wanted to take a quick look at the classes which have teams in the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel coverage area (Eastern A, Eastern B, Western B, Western C, Western D).

There were referees with pink whistles, some interesting strategy down the stretch and one team's depth making the difference. All in all, just another night at the gymnasium.

The Hall-Dale girls basketball team will be down a couple of starters heading into its final four games of the regular season.

Morgan Frame added to her already impressive resume Friday night when he surpassed the 1,000-point mark for her career in the Waterville girls basketball team's 55-20 win over Belfast.

I've made some disparaging comments about ugly basketball, and there were a few games like that Tuesday night. But the Skowhegan-Nokomis game was a gem, decided on Nokomis guard Kara Batchelder's 3-pointer at the buzzer.

When I went to Mt. View a week ago I saw a few things I had never seen before. This time, I saw two, and a pretty amazing comeback sparked by a player who didn't score all game.

For the girls basketball notes this week (which run each Thursday in the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal) I talked to Lawrence coach Jason Pellerin. The Bulldogs are looking strong defensively and have a key matchup Thursday at home against Messalonskee.

Waterville and Mt. View are clearly two of the top teams in Class B. Waterville has won 50 games in a row and the Mustangs have more size than anyone in the KVAC B. But understandably, not everyone was at their best early on.

Messalonskee swept Brewer last season, but two of those games were epic matchups, with Messalonskee winning in triple overtime and double overtime. The teams are scheduled to meet for the first time this season at 6:30 p.m., Friday.

The weather could still play a part in that, but the game still could be played even if school is canceled at Messalonskee. There is no state-wide policy regarding games on days when school is canceled, and at Messalonskee, the games still can go on if the weather clears up.

And yes, the 6:30 p.m. start time is correct. Messalonskee does not have a freshman team this season, so all evening home games will begin at 6:30 p.m.

A decision will likely be made by late Friday morning and the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal websites will have information if area games are postponed.

Cony girls basketball fans may have been disappointed in the team's home loss Wednesday night to Edward Little under first-year coach Karen Sirois. After all, her predecessor and former coach, Paul Vachon, didn't lose 10 home games in 23 years.

For our girls basketball notes this week (which will run each Thursday in the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal), I talked to Madison coach Al Veneziano. Here's a preview of the article.

Here are a few extra stats from Tuesday night's Skowhegan-Messalonskee girls basketball game. Messalonskee won, 52-42, holding off a late Skowhegan rally to improve to 2-0 on the season.

The girls basketball game between Skowhegan and Messalonskee is still on for tonight in Oakland. Weather.com is predicting that Oakland is done with precipitation until 7 p.m., when the area will get "freezing drizzle." Rain is then in the forecast at every one-hour interval until 9 p.m., Wednesday, when it turns to snow showers.

The game is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. start at Messalonskee High School and matches two of the top teams in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A. Both teams won their openers on Friday.

Before Friday night's girls basketball season opener between Lawrence and Skowhegan, Skowhegan coach Heath Cowan took a microphone and asked people to donate to the 50/50 raffle.

"I know times are tough," Cowan said. "But if you can spare a dollar, go get a 50/50. It's going to a wonderful cause tonight."

Hall-Dale High School graduate Chelsey Dionne recently finished her sophomore year at Brandeis University.

There's a full slate of games Thursday in Augusta, and I see them as three good games and one not-so-good one.

At halftime from Bangor Auditorium, Waterville leads Erskine 31-8. The Purple Panthers are doing it with defense. Waterville has forced 16 turnovers and has held Erskine to 3 for 15 shooting from the floor.

I went to the Class D girls matchup between Richmond and Forest Hills on Tuesday morning half awake. Sportswriters, as a rule, like to sleep in.

Eastern A and B almost entirely held form in the first round, as the top three seeds advanced in both brackets. The only "upset" was No. 5 Oxford Hills beating No. 4 Bangor in Eastern A. Here's a look at the semifinal matchups, all of which will be played Wednesday:

This is the space where I give my predictions on the Western C girls quarterfinals. Before we get to that, it's worth talking about why the Heal points system doesn't work, and why the Maine Principals' Association needs to fix it.

Here are my predictions for the first round of the Western D girls basketball tournament. Quarterfinal games will be played Monday and Tuesday at the Augusta Civic Center:

Waterville wins easily, 63-37. Morgan Frame leads the way with 24 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots. Ten different players end up scoring for Waterville, which moves on to play Erskine Wednesday night.

Erskine holds on to win 53-49. Ericka Malley scored 25 for the Eagles and Allie Parent had 27 for Camden. Ashley Richardson added 13 points and nine rebounds for Erskine.

Staff writer Travis Lazarczyk called into update the Eastern B quarterfinal between the Mt. View girls and John Bapst.
At the half, John Bapst leads Mt. View 28-12.

Here's the second installment of my first-round predictions, including an upset I can't believe I'm taking.

This year I'm using this blog to make round-by-round predictions for the brackets which have our local teams involved (Eastern A, Eastern B, Western C and Western D). First, a couple quick disclaimers:

There's not much to complain about if you're a Gardiner girls basketball fan. The Tigers lost a prelim game, 52-51 on a buzzer-beater from Old Town's Rebecca Taylor on Tuesday night, but their effort, particularly in the fourth quarter, was outstanding.

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.

You won't see a lot of emotion on the floor from Rachael Mack and Shelby Pelkey, but they are definitely the leaders on an otherwise inexperienced Cony High School basketball team.

Here's hoping you're having a great holiday season, and here's hoping you were able to see the Mt. Abram-Winthrop or Lawrence-Morse games on Friday night. Only about 60 fans were on hand for the Mt. Abram-Winthrop game, but it was still one of the most exciting games you could hope to see. I left the gym, got on my phone and said, "Games like that are why I love my job."

Moving on, the best matchups during this week are at the Capital City Hoop Classic. But there are a few interesting games on Friday in which Heal points are on the line.

Here are some more things worth mentioning from a very strange night at Messalonskee.

I wasn't lucky enough to see the Messalonskee-Brewer triple overtime game Friday night, but as usual, there are plenty more matchups to look forward to in the last week before the Christmas break. The big one -- and indeed, it's one of the best of the season -- is at Morse High School on Friday night.

It's a little too soon to tell which games are going to end up being big ones, but guessing which games will be interesting ones is fine even after one weekend of games. Here's a look at some interesting matchups in the week ahead:

It's always tough interviewing a coach after a tough loss. If I were a coach in that situation, probably the last person I'd want to talk to is someone with a notebook or a tape recorder. So it's nice when there's another reminder that we have some good people coaching in central Maine.

Forest Hills probably isn't a contender for a state title. But anyone who likes high school sports can appreciate the Tigers this season.

Waterville will open defense of its Class B state title in the City of Waterville on Friday, Dec. 7, but it won't be at Waterville Senior High School, and it won't be at the usual 7 o'clock start for Friday night games.