Furbush said the Ramblers are by far the toughest defensive team they’ve played this year, and Padziorko is one of the reasons why.

“He’s a very good ball defender. He may be the best on-ball defender in the league,” Furbush said. 

As complimentary as Furbush was to Winthrop’s defense, Ramblers’ coach Todd MacArthur sees plenty of room for improvement. He expects Pazdziorko, their defensive leader, to set the tone.

“He’s probably the toughest kid I’ve ever coached, physically and mentally,” MacArthur said. “He brings a mean streak to our team defensively, but not in a dirty way. We want teams to fear our defense. We want teams to be intimidated by it, and he’s the leader of that.” 

Pazdziorko’s toughness not only tests opponents, but MacArthur takes advantage of it in practice, too. He’s been a key to helping leading scorer Jacob Hickey adjust to defenses that are designed to stop him.

“Last year, when we saw all of that box-and-one, he guarded Jake in practice. And I think Jake got sick and tired of seeing that kid in his face. But it prepared him,” MacArthur said.

More Eddies at the ready

Edward Little’s bench has been seeing expanded minutes now that the unbeaten Red Eddies’ front-loaded schedule has become a less challenging. 

With his team putting more distance between itself and opponents with more regularity, coach Mike Adams is able to do more experimenting and give more reserves more playing time. Some players have responded well, which has allowed him to go deeper into his bench earlier in some games.

“We’ve had a couple of games where we’ve been able to look a little bit deeper into that bench, and some guys have stepped up and performed very well,” Adams said. “Unfortunately, for some of those guys, they’re playing against some guys who are really good. There aren’t many opportunities for them to play, especially in close games, and that’s all we had before Christmas.”

“The last couple of games, we’ve been able to get some of those guys in and they’ve performed well and they’ve been practicing really hard,” Adams said. “That helps us in the long run. We need it.”

Buckfield pride

The Rangeley girls earned what was likely the toughest 34-point victory in the state of Maine on Friday over Buckfield. Emphasis on the word “earned.”

“We had to work for everything,” Lakers coach Heidi Deery said. “Some people may look at the score and say, oh, you know — (but) it wasn’t that kind of game, because of their physical play, so I really do take my hat off to Buckfield, because we don’t see that kind of physical play every night.”

The Bucks’ starting lineup Friday included a player who is 4-foot-11, another who is 5-0 and one who is 5-3. Only two players are taller than 5-4, and none are taller than 5-8. They also are a young team without a lot of basketball experience.

But the Bucks fought for rebounds, scuffled for loose ball, and played tight, physical defense throughout the game.

Buckfield’s offense struggled, especially in the first half when it only scored five points, but even that got better in the second half, thanks in part to second-chance scoring.

While The Lakers (8-2) are trying to defend their Class D state championship, Wilkins said from the start that the Bucks (2-8) this season are focused on progressing. Coach Ryan Wilkins said that they showed some of that in last week’s losses to Pine Tree Academy and Rangeley.

“That was nice to see,” Wilkins said Friday, “because we had a pretty good game in terms of our effort and our energy when we played PTA on Wednesday, and then to continue that tonight — that’s what I told them, we want to find some things within the game that we can take that are positives, and I saw a lot of things tonight that are positive, even though it was a lopsided game. They did a lot of things that made me proud of how they played.

“They’re a great group of kids. I wouldn’t trade them for anything.”

Next woman up

When the Leavitt and Gardiner girls met in a KVAC clash on Tuesday, both teams were playing a player down — and key players, at that.

The Hornets were without junior captain Sophie Gilbert, while the Tigers were missing senior forward Mary Toman. Both players are starters for their respective teams.

“Sophie’s a really good player for our basketball team, and it always hurts when some of your good players don’t play,” Leavitt coach Dave Gerrish said.

The Hornets certainly were hurting without one of their starters. Only two girls scored points in the first half, and Leavitt trailed 30-15 at the intermission at home.

The Tigers looked less affected by missing a key piece. Seven players scored in the first half, and nine of the 11 players to enter the game made it onto the scoresheet. Junior reserve Mikayla Bourassa had a team-high 13 points.

“Obviously, we’re playing shorthanded without Mary Toman still,” Gardiner coach Mike Gray said. “And I feel like that’s been a real lift for the kids, is that everyone knows they’ve had to step up, and they have.”

Staff writer Wil Kramlich contributed to this story