How to watch every Maine high school basketball tournament game
By Larry Mahoney, Bangor Daily News Staff
The tournament is back, and you can watch it from the comfort of your home.
The National Federation of High School Sports Associations Network will supply the live streaming of the quarterfinals, except for Class AA, in the North and South Regions.
WHOU will air the North and South regional semifinals and finals in all five classes, and Maine Public Broadcasting will televise and stream the 10 state championship games.
The state championship games will be carried on two channels, Maine Public Television and the PBS Kids Channel.
The state championship games will be streamed live on the Bangor Daily News, and highlight reels from throughout the tournament will be shared each day on the BDN.
NFHS and WHOU are subscription services that cost $10.99 and $10 a month, respectively.
Like most Mainers, Fred Grant, owner and chief executive officer for Northern Maine Media Inc., the parent company of WHOU (100.1 FM in Houlton), is elated that the tournaments are back on this season after the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out last year’s tournaments.
WHOU purchased the streaming rights to air the regional semifinals and finals in all five classes beginning in the 2019-20 season.
That was the first year of a three-year contract and it will again entail carrying a total of 60 games.
WHOU streams regular season games throughout the year as well as other sports and it is currently streaming some of the basketball preliminary play-in games.
“Everybody is thrilled that we are going to have the tournaments so we can have a sense of normalcy back,” Grant said.
“There is nothing like being able to go to the tournament.”
WHOU had been livestreaming games for eight years and had broadcast quarterfinal games in 2013 but the 2019-20 season was the first one when it carried regional semifinal and championship games.
The Class AA quarterfinals will be held at the courts of the higher seeded teams from Tuesday through Thursday. WHOU will stream the AA girls quarterfinal between Windham and Bangor at the Red Barry Gym in Bangor at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
The quarterfinals, semifinals and regional championship games will be contested from Feb. 18-26 in Bangor, Augusta and Portland.
The Class B state games for boys and girls will be held at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on Friday, March 4.
The next day, the AA and A title games will be played at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland and the C and D championship games will be held at the Augusta Civic Center.