South Portland’s Jena Leckie lines up a shot during the Red Riots’ 55-43 win over Gorham last Friday in a playoff rematch.

South Portland’s Bradley McMains goes for the puck while being held up by Scarborough’s Cam Budway during the South Portland/Freeport/Waynflete co-op boys’ hockey team’s 5-2 win Saturday.

Cape Elizabeth’s Isaac Dinnerstein runs the mile during last weekend’s league meet. Dinnerstein finished fourth in the race and the Capers placed fifth as a team.

(Ed. Note: For the complete Cheverus-Portland boys’ basketball, SP/Waynflete/Freeport-Scarborough boys’ hockey and Cheverus/Kennebunk-Scarborough girls’ hockey game stories, see theforecaster.net)

The puck has dropped on the girls’ hockey playoffs, wrestling’s regional championship meet will be held Saturday and conference titles in indoor track, skiing and swimming are also on tap.

And if that’s not enough February excitement, the boys’ and girls’ basketball tournament will be underway this time next week.

Here’s an overview of the week that was and a look at the drama that’s to come.

Girls’ hockey

Scarborough’s girls’ hockey team earned the second seed in the South Region with a record of 13-4-1 after closing the regular season with 3-0 loss at top-ranked Cheverus/Kennebunk last week. The Red Storm didn’t score in two losses to Cheverus/Kennebunk this year.

“I thought we stayed on them and we were in their end quite a bit,” said Scarborough coach Caitlin Jordan. “We had quite a few shots, but a lot of them weren’t on net. That’s what we talked about after the game, that shots can’t go in if they’re not between the pipes. We’ll work on that.”

The Red Storm will host either No. 3 Falmouth (11-5-2) or sixth-ranked Portland/Deering (5-13) in the South Region semifinals Friday at 5 p.m. (see theforecaster.net for game story). In the regular season, Scarborough won its lone meeting with Falmouth, 2-1, on the road and the Red Storm won both meetings this year against Portland/Deering, 7-4 in Portland and 4-0 at home. 

The Cape Elizabeth/Waynflete/South Portland co-op team wound up 9-9 and fifth in the South region after a 5-2 win at Falmouth and a 7-1 loss at Lewiston. The squad hosted fifth-ranked York/Traip/Marshwood (7-10-1) in Wednesday’s quarterfinal round. Cape/Waynflete/SP won the lone regular season meeting, 5-0, at home.

If Cape/Waynflete/SP advanced, it will play at top-ranked Cheverus/Kennebunk (15-2-1) in the semifinals Saturday. Cheverus/Kennebunk won both meetings this year, 3-2 and 7-2.

The South Region Final is Wednesday of next week and the state game will be Saturday, Feb. 16 in Lewiston.

Boys’ basketball

With one game remaining, three local boys’ basketball teams are all looking to move up in the standings.

South Portland was 9-8 and third in the Class AA South Heal Points standings following a 50-45 loss at Gorham and a 51-39 setback at Portland. Against the Rams, Geremi Baez had a team-high 12 points. The Red Riots got nine points from Baez in the loss to the Bulldogs. South Portland closed the regular season at home versus Cheverus Thursday.

Scarborough extended its win streak to six games last Friday with a 64-41 home win over Windham, thanks to 27 points and 10 rebounds from Nick Fiorillo, 17 points from Paul Kirk and 10 from Brian Austin. 

“We’re playing much better defensively,” said Scarborough coach Phil Conley. “Also, we had a lot of inexperience at the beginning of the year and now that inexperience is experience. I love the way we’re playing right now heading into the playoffs.”

The Red Storm’s run ended Tuesday’s with a 49-43 loss at Thornton Academy, which ended their regular season at 10-8. Austin had 16 points and Fiorillo added 15, but it wasn’t enough. Scarborough will likely be the No. 5 seed in Class AA South and projects to visit Gorham in next week’s quarterfinals.

In Class B South, Cape Elizabeth improved to 10-7 and fifth after downing host Wells (54-46) and edging visiting Gray-New Gloucester (47-46). Against the Warriors in a regional final rematch, Quinn Morse had 20 points, Nate Mullen added 15 and Andrew Hartel finished with 11. In the win over the Patriots, Morse scored 16 points, Mullen finished with 13 and the Capers dodged a bullet when a Patriots’ buzzer-beater for the win was off-target. Cape Elizabeth closed at Poland Thursday.

In Class D South, Greater Portland Christian School finished 0-10 and ninth (only eight teams made the playoffs) after a 66-19 loss at Rangeley. 

The boys’ basketball playoffs begin with preliminary round games on the home courts of the higher seeds next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Girls’ basketball

On the girls’ side, South Portland has secured the top seed in Class AA South after extending its win streak to 14 and improving to 16-1 by downing visiting Gorham in a playoff rematch, 55-43, and host Portland, 40-27. The Red Riots avenged last year’s ouster to the reigning Class AA South champion Rams behind 23 points from Maggie Whitmore, 18 from Jena Leckie and a solid defensive effort on Gorham standout Mackenzie Holmes, led by Kaleisha Towle. 

“It feels really good,” Leckie said. “We’ve lost to them the past three years at the Civic Center and it feels great to beat them on our home court.”

“This was circled on our calendar,” Maggie Whitmore said. “The bench got into the game and people hit their shots. We kept our momentum rolling.”

“We have such a long history with Gorham and we don’t like to lose at home,” Towle said. “We owed them one and we came out swinging.”

“We had to stay confident and limit the runs,” South Portland coach Lynne Hasson added. “We just kept playing. There were several big shots that we countered with when it mattered most.”

In the win over the Bulldogs, the Red Riots overcame a slow start behind 14 points from Bela Cloutier and 10 from Whitmore. South Portland closed the regular season at home versus Cheverus Thursday.

Scarborough will be second in Class AA South. The Red Storm finished the regular season 16-2 after losing at home to Portland (49-34) and downing visiting Thornton Academy (63-27). Scarborough’s 12-game win streak ended against the Bulldogs. Bella Dickinson had a team-high 11 points. In the victory, Julia Freeman scored 16 points, Lindsey Fiorillo added 13 and Josie Couture contributed 10.

In Class B South, Cape Elizabeth was 7-10 and seventh after losses to visiting Wells (39-31) and host Gray-New Gloucester (40-34). Brooke Harvey had a team-high 11 points against the Warriors. In the loss to the Patriots, Saylor Wood led the way with 10 points. The Capers closed the regular season at home versus Poland Thursday.

The girls’ basketball playoffs begin with preliminary round games on the home courts of the higher seeds next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Boys’ hockey

The boys’ hockey regular season still has a couple weeks remaining and all three local teams are in the mix for a playoff spot.

The South Portland/Freeport/Waynflete co-op team improved to 6-6 and fifth in the region after defeating host Windham/Westbrook (9-0) and visiting Scarborough (5-2) last week. 

“This is a huge win for us,” SP/Freeport/Waynflete coach Joe Robinson said, after downing the Red Storm. “We’ve underachieved as a whole, but the talent’s there and when it clicks, we can play with anybody. Hopefully, going into February, when it really counts, this is where we start taking it to the level we thought we’d be at going into the season.”

The Red Riots visited two-time defending Class A champion Lewiston Wednesday, hosted Thornton Academy Thursday and welcome Marshwood Saturday.

Scarborough fell to 5-6-1 and fourth in Class A South after falling at SP/Freeport/Waynflete (5-2) and Thornton Academy (2-0). The Red Storm got goals from Cam Budway and Sam Rutelhart in the loss to the Red Riots, but surrendered a pair of short-handed goals.

We’ve been really solid 5-on-5 this year,” said Scarborough coach Jacob Brown. “We haven’t let up a lot of 5-on-5 goals, but we show our youth and inexperience on special teams. They just outworked us.” 

The Red Storm hoped to snap a four-game losing streak when they visited Cheverus Thursday (see theforecaster.net for game story). Scarborough hosts Lake Region Saturday, then plays at Marshwood Monday.

In Class B South, Cape Elizabeth has won six straight games and improved to 10-3 and second behind reigning regional champion Greely in the Heals after downing host Gorham, 3-1, Saturday. Andrew Carroll, Gavin Simopoulos and Phil Tarling all scored. The Capers hosted Portland/Deering Thursday and go to Gardiner Saturday.

Cape Elizabeth’s Simopoulos was named January’s Class B South Player of the Month by the league’s coaches. Simopoulos scored 14 goals and added 10 assists for 24 points.

Indoor track

Scarborough’s boys and girls’ indoor track teams each won their regular season-ending Southwestern Maine Activities Association meet last week. 

In the other meet, South Portland’s boys and girls each placed sixth.

The SMAA Championship Meet is Saturday in Gorham.

In the Western Maine Conference, Cape Elizabeth’s girls finished second to Gray-New Gloucester, while the Capers boys placed fifth. 

The WMC Championship Meet is Friday in Gorham.

Swimming

In the pool, Cape Elizabeth swept Portland, as the defending Class B champion girls prevailed, 145-37, and the Capers boys beat the Bulldogs, 88-79.

Scarborough swept Windham, as the boys won, 94-60, and the girls beat the Eagles, 102-57.

South Portland split with Westbrook, as the boys won, 117-54, but the Red Riots girls lost to the Blue Blazes, 97-74.

The Southwestern championships will be held this weekend.

Skiing

Cape Elizabeth’s boys’ Alpine ski team won a giant slalom meet last week at Shawnee Peak, while the girls came in fifth.

Monday, in a slalom meet, the Capers boys were first and the girls placed sixth.

On the Nordic side, Cape Elizabeth’s girls finished 10th and the boys were 12th at a 12-team skate meet last week in Fryeburg. 

Wrestling

Scarborough’s wrestling team finished the regular season 4-17 after losses to Noble (72-12), Bonny Eagle (42-30) and Deering (46-24) and a win over Westbrook (39-24).

The regional meet is Saturday.

Sports Editor Michael Hoffer can be reached at mhoffer@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @foresports.