Apr. 2—Madelynn Deprey was getting tired of it. If she was hanging around with her brothers, Parker and Sawyer, the conversation would turn to the Gold Balls they won — and the zero to her name.
"My brothers always give me a hard time," said Deprey, a Caribou senior. "In family game nights, if I'm ever beating them in Uno or something, they'll be like, 'Yeah, but you'll never beat us in number of state championships.' Just stuff they'll always throw my way like that."
This winter, Deprey narrowed the gap. She led the Vikings to the Class B championship with a do-it-all performance, scoring 29 points and pulling down 16 rebounds in a 49-48 overtime win over Biddeford, and then took home another coveted accolade when she was named the winner of the Miss Maine Basketball award, given to the best senior in the state.
For her performance, Deprey is the Varsity Maine Girls Basketball Player of the Year. Ella Pelletier, the Gatorade Player of the Year, whose two-way excellence took Oxford Hills to the AA North final, was also considered.
"It was absolutely perfect," said Deprey, who will attend Southern New Hampshire University. "Winning a state championship, being able to bring that home to the Caribou community, is everything I ever imagined. It was awesome."
The Class B title capped a season in which Deprey excelled from start to finish, finishing with averages of 22 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.
"She understands her opponents and who she's defending, and who needs to be defended more closely," Caribou coach Kayla Brown said. "She's got great size and great length. ... She's a great ball-handler for someone her size. She's put a lot of time in on shooting, she can score inside, she can score outside."
Deprey's defense took time to come along. Over the summer, a college coach told her they were passing on her — her defense wasn't good enough.
"I took that kind of personally," she said. "I really worked on my game. All summer, I just did defensive drill after defensive drill. ... Quickness and agility, that was a really big thing for me. Lateral side-to-side movements."
She also honed another prominent element to her game. Few players were better conditioned than Deprey, who rarely left the floor and often was at her best late in the game. In the weeks before the Class B title game, she ran for 32 minutes on a treadmill every non-game day. If she could do it there, she figured, she could do it in the game.
"I wanted to make sure I could give everything I can," she said.
There was no shortage of motivation. Caribou lost to Ellsworth in the North semifinals her sophomore and junior years, so this season, from the opening night, was about winning a championship.
"A hundred percent. That was the mindset for our entire senior group," she said. "It was now or never."
Caribou vanquished Ellsworth in the semifinals this year, 47-37, behind 17 points from Deprey. The Vikings then took out Erskine Academy, 61-46, in the regional final, with Deprey scoring 18.
With the chance to win an elusive state title, Deprey didn't squander it. She poured in 10 points in the first quarter to help Caribou to a 17-8 lead, jumping all over a Biddeford team that was scrambling to slow her.
"I knew that not a lot of girls on my team had seen defensive intensity like that," she said. "I figured that if I got (going) early, it would make everybody feel a little more comfortable."
Biddeford rallied to pull even by the end of regulation, but Deprey, who never left the court, kept the Vikings alive, scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter and overtime.
"She has a motor like ...
