Maranacook's Cash McClure wins state's Gatorade boys basketball award

Ernie Clark, Bangor Daily News, Maine
·2 min read

Jun. 11—Sharpshooting guard Cash McClure of Maranacook Community School in Readfield has been named the 2020-21 Gatorade Maine Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

The annual award, which recognizes athletic excellence, high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character on and off the field, distinguishes McClure as Maine's best high school boys basketball player.

The 6-foot-2, 170-pound senior, who was named Maine's Mr. Basketball earlier in the year, led the Black Bears to a 15-0 record last winter, and while there was no formal postseason tournament around the state due to COVID-19, his play sparked Class B Maranacook to the Central Maine Classes A-B tournament championship.

McClure averaged 26.7 points, 8.4 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game and also was named the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference player of the year.

"I don't think there was anyone even close to Cash McClure this year," said Tim Bonsant, head coach at Erskine Academy in South China. "He just has the complete package. He can shoot the three, he can go right by you, and he always made his teammates better. He was easily the best defender in our league, too, maybe the best in the state."

As a junior, McClure led Maranacook to the Class B state championship game where the Black Bears dropped a dramatic 73-71 double-overtime decision to Caribou. McClure scored a game-high 33 points in that contest, 26 during the second half and two overtimes.

McClure also has maintained a 3.98 grade-point average in the classroom, and has volunteered locally on behalf of hiking trail preservation efforts and youth basketball programs.

He will spend a postgraduate year at Kimball Union Academy in Plainfield, New Hampshire, beginning this fall.

McClure is the second Gatorade Maine Boys Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Maranacook Community School. Ryan Martin earned the honor in 2008.

The award is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year selection committee, which works with top sport-specific experts and a media advisory board of accomplished, veteran prep sports journalists to determine the state winners in each sport.

McClure joins Bryce Lausier of Hampden Academy (2019-20), Matthew Fleming of Bangor (2018-19) and Terion Moss of Portland (2017-18, 2016-17) as the most recent Maine basketball standouts to be honored during the 36-year history of the award.