BANGOR, Maine — The last time the Caribou High School girls basketball team won a regional basketball championship, Ronald Reagan was the President of the United States and the number one song on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 was “When Doves Cry” by Prince.
It was 1984 and the Vikings were in Class A.
The top-seeded Vikings ended the long drought on Friday night, jumping out to a 22-5 lead in the first quarter and never looking back en route to a 61-46 victory over youthful Erskine Academy of South China in their Class B North championship game at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
“Words can’t describe it,” said Caribou 1,000-point scorer Madelynn Deprey. “It’s unbelievable. I am so proud of this team. We’ve worked so hard to be where we are. It’s really awesome.”
Caribou, now 20-1 and winner of 15 straight, will take on 16-5 South champ Biddeford in Saturday’s 1 p.m. state title game at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
“We came out strong today which is different from our last two games and is really nice to see,” said Caribou coach Kayla Brown. “I knew we were capable of playing better and it showed today.”
Caribou’s full-court pressure defense forced a number of turnovers early and the Vikings also attacked the boards, outrebounding the smaller Eagles 15-3 in the first quarter.
“We’ve been working on rebounding a lot in practice,” said Caribou junior forward Liv Adams, who poured in 18 points to share game’s top scoring honors with senior teammate Deprey. “That was one of our key points. Because we’re a bigger team, we can be dominant on the boards which helps us.”
Adams noted that the press not only caused turnovers, it forced Erskine Academy to take bad shots. The Eagles, who started four sophomores and a junior, had several airballs in the first period.
“I knew we wanted to come out strong but I didn’t expect us to get that big a lead that early,” said Deprey.
“Our nerves got the best of us,” said Erskine Academy coach Danielle Lefferts. “We were scared and we played scared. But once we settled in, we were good. Caribou outscored us by two in the second quarter but we won the third and fourth quarters and that was a goal. And we attained it.”
She acknowledged that the rebounding discrepancy hurt them.
“It’s hard to win basketball games when you’re struggling to rebound,” said Lefferts.
The Vikings rattled off 14 unanswered points in the first period to build a 16-4 lead.
Adams had six of the points and Deprey had three assists to go with a basket during that stretch.
“Credit to Liv Adams. She has been a huge support player for them,” said Lefferts. “Obviously Deprey is going to get her [points]. She’s an amazing player.”
The Vikings shot 10-for-22 from the floor in the first period and Erskine Academy made just two of 13.
“Madelynn works hard and I love the way she finds her support players. And Liv Adams was huge tonight against us,” Lefferts said.
Adams had six points and Deprey had two more assists during a 10-3 run in the second period. Caribou expanded its lead to 32-8 before the scrappy Eagles ended the half with a 5-0 run.
The Eagles kept trying to climb their way back into the game and closed to within 45-30 early in the fourth quarter. But Caribou responded with seven straight points on an Adams basket off a Deprey pass; a five-foot jumper by Deprey; an Adams basket off her offensive rebound and a Lilly Bell free throw.
The Eagles had erased a 12-0 deficit to rally past John Bapst in the previous round of the tournament, but Deprey and Adams weren’t about to let that happen.
Deprey finished with a game-high seven assists to go with her 18 points and nine rebounds. She also had two steals.
Adams had eight rebounds and two steals to accompany her 18 points.
Deprey now has 56 points total in the Vikings’ three tournament wins and Adams has 47.
Freshman guard Quinn Corrigan had 10 points, eight rebounds, two steals and two assists for Caribou and fellow freshman guard Bell produced nine points and six rebounds off the bench. Senior guard Ainsley Caron had three points and five steals and Brianna Levesque, also a senior guard, chipped in with two points, five rebounds and two steals.
Erskine Academy sophomore guard Kelsie Dunn scored in double figures for the third straight tournament game with 11, giving her 41 total points for her tourney. She also had three rebounds and two steals.
Sophomore guard Olivia Childs had eight points, four steals and three rebounds. Sophomore center Isabella Winchenbach had eight points and three rebounds.
Freshman guard-forward Kinsey Ulmer corralled a game-high 13 rebounds for the Eagles and also had seven points and four steals.
Sophomore guard Olivia Northrup had four points and four steals. Sophomore forward Kienna Morse had four points and five rebounds.
Junior forward Madeline Clement-Cargill had three rebounds and two points.
“We have a lot of good takeaways from this,” said Lefferts. “They know what to play for now and they’ve been here, and we’re just going to come back stronger.”
