Presque Isle, Washburn girls to grab top positions
By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
The Presque Isle Wildcats and Washburn Beavers have virtually secured No. 1 seeds for the upcoming basketball tournament.
Presque Isle needed the last-second heroics of junior guard Kayla Richards to beat Mattanawcook last Tuesday, while the Wildcats also bested Old Town Saturday. The two wins improved the team’s record to 16-1 on the season.
The Wildcats, who finish the regular season with a Thursday matchup at Caribou, lead second-place John Bapst by an insurmountable 30 points in the Heal Point standings for Eastern Maine Class B.
The Vikings (9-8) are closing out the season strong and thanks to Saturday’s upset victory over Bapst and Monday’s win over Houlton, Class C’s top team, have all but secured at least the sixth seed in the division.
Washburn downed Fort Fairfield last Wednesday to improve to 15-2. The Beavers, scheduled to play Hodgdon at home last night, lead by 12 tournament index points over second-place Central Aroostook (14-3), which hosts Fort Fairfield in both teams’ finale Thursday.
The defending state champion Tigers (13-3) were fifth in the rankings posted Tuesday morning. Easton, which finished with a 9-9 record, is 11th, while Limestone-MSSM, 2-15 heading into tonight’s home finale against Southern Aroostook, is 12th and Ashland, which ended up at 6-12, is 14th. All will finish out of the playoffs this season.
The preliminary round of the playoffs is scheduled to take place next Tuesday, Feb. 15. The Eastern Maine Tournament, held at the Bangor Auditorium, gets under way Friday, Feb. 18.
Summaries of games played through Monday, Feb. 7 are as follows:
Ashland 52, Wisdom 48 – The Hornets made it back-to-back victories behind four double-digit scorers.
Whitney Donovan scored 15 points, while Rylee Graham had 12 and Brooke LaBelle and Adrianna Paradis 10 each for 6-12 Ashland.
The host Pioneers received a game-high 22 points from senior Hayley Cyr.
Easton 41, Limestone-MSSM 34 – The Bears avenged an early-season loss to the Eagles behind 15 points from Carla Halvorson and 12 from Mindy Desmond.
Stephanie Leighton had 13 to lead the visiting Eagles.
Presque Isle 64, Old Town 36 – The Wildcats used a 22-7 scoring spurt in the third quarter to ease past the Coyotes Saturday in Presque Isle.
Nine different players scored for PI, including 14 from Karlee Bernier, 13 from Kayla Richards and 10 from Chandler Guerrette.
Ashley Englund was Old Town’s leading scorer with nine points.
Ashland 43, Limestone-MSSM 27 – In what Ashland coach Kevin Paradis called “his team’s best effort of the season,” the visiting Hornets gained the victory Friday.
Ashland’s defense limited the Eagles to three points in the second quarter and four in the fourth, while Donovan spearheaded the Hornet offense with three three-pointers and a career-high 20 points.
Kayla Cote notched 13 points for the winners, including a pair of threes.
Leighton’s 11 points led Limestone-MSSM.
Easton 61, GHCA 20 – The Bears won easily Friday in Hodgdon behind a balanced offensive attack. Twelve Bear players scored, led by Mariah Cyr with 12 points. Easton went out to a 19-2 lead at the end of the first quarter and never looked back.
Katahdin 41, Ashland 31 – The host Cougars used Brittany Fogerty’s 13 points to best Ashland Thursday.
Cote scored 11 points and Donovan chipped in with 10 for the Hornets.
Easton 44, Wisdom 24 – Halvorson scored 13 points and Desmond netted 13 more as the Bears came through with the comfortable win in St. Agatha Thursday.
Hayley Cyr had nine points for the Pioneers.
Washburn 51, Fort Fairfield 46 – In a battle between two of the powers in EM Class D, the Beavers hit their free throws down the stretch to win on the road last Wednesday.
Carmen Bragg had 19 points and Rebecca Campbell posted 10 to lead the winning offense.
Amanda Hotham and Brooke Beaulieu had 22 and 15 points, respectively, for the Tigers.
Central Aroostook 59, Ashland 27 – Kristen Long had a brilliant all-around performance with 16 points, 10 rebounds and five steals to lead the Panther past the Hornets in Mars Hill last Tuesday.
Vicki McIntyre netted 20 points and Rachael Grew hit for 12, including three three-pointers, for CA.
Cote had two three-pointers and a team-high eight points for Ashland.
Presque Isle 37, Mattanawcook 36 – Richards connected on a shot from halfcourt to beat the buzzer and give PI the win over the Lynx in overtime last Tuesday in Lincoln.
After Mattanawcook took a two-point lead on a made free throw with two seconds left, Richards received the inbounds pass and dribbled a few times before netting the game-winner from long distance.
She had 13 points and Guerrette nine for the Wildcats.
Rianne Gardner had 10 points and 11 rebounds for Mattanawcook Academy.
