On Wednesday January 11, the varsity boys basketball team fought against the Houlton Shires. Presque Isle went in prepared. “We treated last night as a business trip,” varsity boys head coach Dillon Kingsbury said. “We knew it was a game we could win, we just needed to go down and take care of business.” Presque Isle was in 9th place coming into the game. 

Presque Isle just came off a win against WA on January 7. With a County rivalry in place on Wednesday, Presque Isle knew it wouldn’t be your ordinary crowd. “As cheesy as it sounds,  if you can focus on what your team needs to do then the crowd isn’t as loud,” Jack Hallett ’23 said about the atmosphere in Houlton.

Although Houlton was missing key starter Isaiah Ervin ’25, they came close with Presque Isle during the first half. “Our half court defense is something that’s been a work in progress all season long,” Kingsbury said. “We’re getting a little better each day, something we try to work on every day in practice in some way, shape, or form.” 

In the first half Presque Isle was less than 20% from three point land. “To win games when shots aren’t falling, you need to crash the offensive boards and wait for the shots to fall,” Hallett said. Hallett had seven rebounds and seven points all generated in the paint.

Presque Isle won the game 54-24. “We approach each team differently,” Hallett said.

Most recently Malachi Cummings ’23 scored his 1000th point against the shires at home on December 31, adding his name to the others on the wall in the Presque Isle High School one-thousand point club. Cummings had 21 points, 13 rebounds, and 7 assists against the Shires, helping lead his team to another victory.