Edward Little’s Wol Maiwen, center, grabs a rebound and prepares to put it back up while being defended by South Portland’s Geremi Baiz, left and Ryan Boles, right during the first half of Tuesday night’s basketball game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Russ Dillingham)

Edward Little coach Mike Adams described a recent practice when his Red Eddies waited for a youth winter guard to pick up after using the gym for its own practice to illustrate the kind of character his best player, senior Wol Maiwen, displays on a regular basis.

“There were 12 girls trying to get their mats off the court,” Adams recalled. “We had 12 boys sitting up on the stage just watching them, Wol jumps down and helps them fold up the mats.”

“He’s a leader in the school,” Adams said. “His family is the most important thing to him. Whatever school he goes to after high school is going to get a player that will improve more than any other player that they have.”

The most outstanding player of last year’s Class AA North tournament, Maiwen is once again leading the Red Eddies in the hunt for another state title.

Yet despite averaging a double-double each night and being one of the most feared two-way players in the state, Maiwen is still searching for a place to continue his education and his basketball career.

Adams said college recruiters’ interest in the 6-foot-4 forward hasn’t heated up as much as he expected after he led the Red Eddies to their first state championship since 1946 last March. He believes at least part of the tepidness is based on rumors and speculation of Maiwen’s attitude and behavior off the court, stemming from a suspension he received during last season for an incident at school.

“I’m just worried that the perception of who Wol is is different than the reality,” Adams said. “He’s a solid B student. He got nearly 1,000 on SATs. Besides being one of the most electrifying players in the state and having one of the biggest stat lines in the state, because he does everything for us, he’s that same person off the court in terms of decisions that he makes, in terms of the way that he treats people.”

ONE LAST SHOT

Destiny Clough played a big role on Monmouth’s back-to-back Class C girls’ basketball state championship teams as a sophomore and junior, but she wasn’t able to be a part of a potential three-peat as a senior.

That is, until the Mustangs’ senior night against Dirigo on Friday.

Clough put on her white Mustangs jersey, laced up her basketball sneakers, and made sure to secure a brace to the injured left knee that all but wiped out her final season of high school basketball.

She stood patiently as the Mustangs let the Cougars win the opening tip and score the opening basket, then awaited the ball under her own hoop for an uncontested layup.

But she missed.

So she took a couple steps while laughing at herself and made her second attempt before leaving the floor for good.

“We practiced it last night. And she traveled, and she missed her layup, and we all joked about it,” first-year Monmouth coach Rick Larrabee said. “And I spoke with Dirigo, spoke with Coach (Rebecca) Fletcher, so we set something up. And I spoke with the officials, and they were OK with everything. You always want to set that stuff up first. And when she missed it was just a big joke. You know, we joked about her, you know, 50 percent on the year — 1 for 2 — and got one rebound.

“And it was very important to us because I promised her partway through the season that I was going to get her in senior night. And so being able to have Coach Fletcher allow us to set this up, I want to thank Dirigo for that. It just meant a lot to the whole team.”

“That meant everything to me and the whole team,” fellow senior Julia Johnson said. “We really, really wish she could have played more, but it worked out that she could only play the minutes that you saw. Yeah, that was a really, really big deal for all of us, and we’re really thankful that Coach Fletcher let that happen for us.”

The Mustangs also used the end of the game to give another senior one last chance to step on the Monmouth Academy court. Haylee Langlois, who started the season with the team before stepping away from game action to focus on softball, played the final 1:16 of the game. She jumped in on a couple loose balls, and got a chance to score at the free-throw line with 2.9 seconds left, but both attempts rimmed out.

“We call her, she’s the mom of the team,” Larrabee said. “So just to get her out there for the last minute … I care about my girls very much, I care about the community, and I just like that they play hard and want to win, and want to go for that third gold ball.”

PHOENIX, RAIDERS JOCKEY FOR SEEDING

Spruce Mountain coach Zach Keene’s Phoenix (8-9) should be in the playoffs or end up playing a preliminary game before heading to the Portland Expo. Oak Hill coach Mike Labonte’s Raiders have a lock on a postseason appearance with a 15-1 record.

But both skippers know anything can happen before the regular season wraps up in the Mountain Valley Conference this week. The Raiders staved off the Phoenix with a 45-31 victory on Friday night.

“There’s a lot big Heal-point games left,” Keene said. “It just a matter of if we get a bye to the Expo or we have to play a prelim. I told them, ‘If you repeat the effort we had tonight, we will be tough to beat.”

Labonte’s Raiders will be heading straight to the Expo for a B South quarterfinal.

“We just want to keep getting better,” he said. “Our girls work hard and that’s the motto — just get better every day, so, and whatever happens, happens.”

GERMAIN AND RELATIVE

Jeremy St. Germain isn’t afraid to admit that older brother Cody’s promotion from assistant to head coach last summer played some part in him having a breakout senior season at Dirigo.

“My brother (Cody) is the coach now, and that helps,” he said.

Cody, who led the Cougars to a state title in 2012, then worked as an assistant coach for Travis Magnusson off-and-on for the last six years, wanted his younger brother to step into a leadership role as a senior, Jeremy said.

But make no mistake, Jeremy St. Germain has earned everything he’s gotten this season, no nepotism needed. The 6-foot-5 forward ranks second in the Mountain Valley Conference in points (19.2) and rebounds per game (10).

The key to developing into one of the top big men in Class C this year was preparing for the perils of the paint, getting physically and mentally stronger to withstand the pounding big men take on any given night in the MVC.

“It’s really been about getting more physical because I’m not the biggest guy. It’s posting up well, finishing hard and not being worried about the contact,” he said.

Contact is a constant for St. Germain, who draws all kinds of attention on the low block. Earlier this season, the Cougars were having trouble finding other offensive options to exploit that attention, but are slowly finding more balance thanks to players such as Mateo Lapointe and Alex Gorham.

Since starting the season 2-6, the Cougars are 5-3 in their last eight and have ascended from a borderline tournament team to possibly hosting a preliminary round game after Saturday’s 50-42 win over Monmouth.

“He’s been dealing with a lot of double-teams this year,” Cody St. Germain said. “I think in some recent games, we’ve been doing a lot better job of getting other guys open and some other guys are stepping up.”

Sun Journal reporters Randy Whitehouse, Wil Kramlich and Tony Blasi contributed to this story.

Monmouth Academy senior captain Destiny Clough (34) leaves the court after scoring the Mustangs’ first basket during Friday’s game against Dirigo. Clough is injured and did not play the rest of the game, or at any other point in the season. Friday was senior night for the Mustangs. (Daryn Slover/Sun Journal)