Thomas men’s basketball is on its third coach in less than one full season. Under first-year coach Geoff Hensley, the Terriers are 7-5 in the North Atlantic Conference, good for fourth place.
Since the semester break, Thomas is 6-3 — and one of those losses was a 30-point setback to Colby-Sawyer at home that Thomas avenged three weeks later with a 74-63 victory at Colby-Sawyer.
“It’s definitely a lot better than it was in October,” Hensley said. “They’re picking up things. Our offense is starting to click. Our defense is clicking. We’ve been talking about it all year — it’s a process. Right now, we’re playing at a high level, but there’s still another level we can get to.
“We’re not the biggest, the quickest, the most athletic, but we have a tough group of guys that’s very unselfish,” Hensley added. “They’re willing to do whatever it takes to win.”
Skowhegan grad Levi Barnes continues to be the big scorer, and is now averaging 24.5 points per game, good for fourth in the country in Division III. In Saturday’s two-point loss to New England College, Barnes had 15 field goal attempts, but still scored 37 points.
“It’s really a collective team effort,” Hensley said. “Levi’s doing a lot of the scoring. Eric Westbrooks does so many little things that you can’t even calculate it all. He’s our leading rebounder. He’s our best defender. He’s the leader on the team, actually. Our point guard Ian King’s playing very well, dishing out a lot of assists, getting a lot of guys involved. Justin Murray and Adam Carlsen are both playing at a very high level. Usually, one of them’s going off on one night, shooting a very high percentage from three.
“It’s a team effort right now. Everyone’s kind of playing their roles. Everyone’s playing well. Our two other seniors, Mike Akanji and Shaun Munson, are both doing a lot of the little things, being good upperclassmen, and rebounding and defending. It’s a good time to be part of Thomas basketball.”
Thomas hosts Johnson State at 5:30 p.m., Friday, and Lyndon State at 1 p.m., Saturday. Both meetings were close when the teams played in Vermont in December. The Terriers beat Lyndon 77-70, then lost to Johnson, 66-65, the next day.
“We have two tough games this weekend,” Hensley said. “Both games are very tough. Both games are very winnable. If the Thomas team shows up that beat Colby-Sawyer, that beat Presque Isle — if that team shows up, we should be able to take care of business here.”
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The Thomas women sit at 2-17 overall and 1-11 in the NAC. Emily Cummins is the Terriers’ fourth coach in six year and the school’s first full-time women’s basketball coach. One of the most encouraging signs this season is that Cummins plans to stick around.
“I do. It’s exciting,” Cummins said. “Right now, it’s not very exciting at times, and it’s a little frustrating at times. A lot of people come up and tell me, ‘Oh, you guys have come so far. You’re doing so much better.’ At the time, I didn’t really see it. I took home one of the games that we played at the beginning of the season, and one of our most recent games, and we have come a long way. We have a great group of kids. We’ve just got to get a little more recruiting in here.
“It’s not going to be as fast a transition as I would like it to be, or probably any coach would like it to be. But I can definitely see where we’re headed. I absolutely want to stay and see this program grow.”
Cummins said this after Thomas’ two most recent games were a 90-34 loss to Colby-Sawyer on Friday and a 67-34 setback to New England College on Saturday. The Terriers have six freshmen and no seniors on their roster of 11 players.
“We just had to pick out the positives from the weekend,” Cummins said. “At this point in the season, it’s about keeping our heads — staying positive, trying to play teams hard, reminding our kids that everybody else has the bull’s-eye on their back. We don’t. We don’t have anything to lose, so we can go out and try to have fun, play hard, and try to sneak up on a team.”
Even in a trying season like this one, there have been encouraging signs. Gardiner grad Katie McAllister leads Thomas in scoring and is one of the top rebounders, while Waterville’s Ashleigh Gagne has continued to be a solid all-around player. Winslow native and Lawrence High School grad Taylor Reynolds joined Thomas for the second semester and has become a starter. Jordan Agger-Barnes and Tess McClenahan give the Terriers two more strong rebounders in the starting lineup.
“You can definitely tell when something’s going on with our team,” Cummins said. “If everything’s good, we play really well. If something else is going on, you can definitely tell that there’s some turmoil or some sickness. We communicate well. We pass well. We move the ball quickly. We get good open shots. We run at shooters defensively. We’re able to rebound. It’s all the little things that we didn’t have early on as far as our team — them getting to know each other — that are starting to click now.”
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The results show that the University of Maine at Augusta women were 1-5 in the month of January. There are some good reasons, though. The best reason is that it’s the toughest stretch the Moose will play in the regular season.
Those five losses including a 12-point setback to Pine Manor, who plays in NCAA Division III, and four losses to teams ranked in the top nine in USCAA Division 2 (UMA is ranked 10th in the country).
The Moose lost to No. 5 Berkeley College of New York, 60-59. They lost to Pine Manor by 12, but it was a seven-point game with 5 1/2 minutes left. They lost to St. Joseph’s of Vermont — ranked No. 1 in the USCAA — in overtime. The Moose lost to national power Central Maine Community College by 18, but were down only six with seven minutes to play.
“I think it’s definitely a learning and growing process for us,” UMA coach Jennifer Laney said. “We have a very strong schedule, especially coming back from the break. We’re playing better basketball, and I think that’s going to help us as we get to playoffs, to make a solid run.”
UMA has four players scoring in double figures, led by Richmond grad Jamie Plummer at 20.3 ppg. Freshman Carmen Bragg (14.7 ppg), Erskine grad Jessica St. Amand (10.6 ppg), and Monmouth grad Kylie Kemp (10.3 ppg) are the other leading scorers.
Beginning with Tuesday’s game against Unity, the Moose end their regular season with six games in nine days. UMA made the USCAA national tournament last winter, and has a good chance to get there again this season.
“I think with any team, you always want to keep striving to get better,” Laney said. “I think we’re on our way. I think we’ve set ourselves up for a really good place for the end of the season. I think we’re in a similar place to last year as well.”
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While Mt. Blue grad Gabby Foy has always been a productive player for the CMCC women, she was almost in video-game mode last week. Over three games, Foy shot 57 percent and scored 24 points per game — while playing 23 minutes per game.
That performance made Foy both the Yankee Small College Conference Player of the Week, and the USCAA Division 2 National Player of the Week.
“Before this week, I think she had, not necessarily been struggling with her jump shot, but definitely had her ups and downs,” CMCC coach Andrew Morong said. “Once she gets going, there are very few that are as talented as she is from the outside.”
Foy has made 41 3-pointers in 17 games this season. Morong said Foy added muscle in the weight room in the offseason, and that’s had a big impact on her game.
“Last year, her and I felt like she was settling at times,” Morong said. “This year, she’s not settling.”
While the shots are always there for Foy, she’s still only playing 24 minutes per game. CMCC is 14-4, and Morong said Foy has bought into that. Actually, she’s leading the Mustangs in minutes per game.
“Just the way we play — pressing, in-your-face defense — she couldn’t play 40 minutes a game anyway,” Morong said. “Nobody could.”
Foy is looking at playing at the NCAA Division II level after this season, Morong said.
“She’s been on two official visits to scholarship-level schools, Division II schools,” he said. “She has about a dozen Division II schools looking at her right now. That doesn’t mean she’s going to get a scholarship. It just means she’s working hard, and people have noticed.”
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
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