AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Principal’s Association high school basketball tournament bracket shrinks more each day.
Semifinal round matchups went on around the state Tuesday in Portland, Augusta, and Bangor. One of the biggest crowds at this stage of the tournament might be on Wednesday night at the Augusta Civic Center when Nokomis takes on Cony.
The Warriors are the top seed in the Class A North region, and freshmen twins Ace and Cooper Flagg helped the team earn that spot and a convincing win over Messalonskee on Saturday in the quarterfinals.
“There [were] tons of people here, so the atmosphere was great, tons of energy. Lots of students showed up to support us. Tons of people showed up to support us, so it was a really great atmosphere,” Cooper Flagg said after the game.
The Flagg twins are being courted off the basketball floor by college programs. Their mother, Kelly Bowman Flagg, posted on Facebook last week that the two had been offered a scholarship to play at the University of Maine, where she played basketball in the 1990s.
UMaine cannot officially comment on potential recruits until they sign an official sign of intent or pay an enrollment deposit.
While the high-flying twins may demand the attention of fans at the game, Cooper Flagg said it takes a full team effort to be successful. It’s hard to argue that point with the team’s record now at 21-1.
As the crowd size at games continues to increase, Cooper Flagg said he and his team need to just do their job and execute on the court.
“We just [got to] block it out and just focus on the goal that’s at hand. We just [got to] keep going forward,” he said.
It’s not just the younger Flagg brothers getting minutes on the Nokomis team. Their older brother, Hunter Flagg, is a senior. And for the first time, all three Flaggs are on the court together and have one shot to do something they’ve always dreamed about, winning a state championship.
“It’s always what we’ve talked about since we were little, just winning the gold ball,” Cooper Flagg said.
Now, they're just three wins away from doing that.
The triple-threat of Flagg brothers will have their next test at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday when Nokomis squares off against Cony at the Augusta Civic Center in the Class A boy’s semifinal.