The entourage that follows Lawrence of Fairfield star Cindy Blodgett and the Bulldogs’ own Maine version of the Victory tour has another opening after their 75-43 win over Nokomis in an Eastern Maine Class A girls semifinal Thursday.

To the coaches, managers, statisticians, autograph-seekers and teeny-bopper Cindy-wannabees, add the boxing genre’s most valuable player: the cut man.

Because even though Blodgett did her typical twisting and shouting on her way to an “A” tournament record 39 points on 16-for-24 shooting, the top ‘Dog found out early in the third quarter what Ali and Frazier knew for years: blood can knock you out of a battle early.

After butting heads with a Warrior at midcourt, Blodgett headed to the sideline with 6:43 left in the quarter, dripping blood through the fingers clenched over her face, with a cut over one eye.

“I had a feeling exactly what it was,” Lawrence coach Bruce Cooper said. “I know that facial wounds bleed like the dickens, and look 10 times worse than what they ever are. I actually felt kind of good that it was over the eye, and we knew exactly where the blood was coming from. That can easily be remedied.”

A quick patch job was the temporary remedy for Blodgett, and when she returned 3:12 later, minus the trademark No. 14 jersey (she wore No. 54 instead of the blood-stained original), she proceeded to score 13 of the ‘Dogs next 20 points and put an exclamation point on another lopsided win.

Blodgett went to a Bangor hospital after the game to have a doctor attend to the cut.

Lawrence will face the winner of the Cony-Old Town semifinal at 7:05 p.m. Saturday for the Eastern Maine championship.

Nokomis coach Charles Wing said he hoped for the Warriors to slow Blodgett, but stop the rest of the Bulldogs. But Lawrence shot 55 percent from the floor (32-for-58), and scored 17 straight points in the second quarter to turn a might-have-a-chance 22-15 lead into a see-ya-later 39-15 score.

“They shot extremely well,” Wing said. “I don’t know what their percentage was, but it was higher than anyone who played against us this year. Plus, their pressure was excellent.”

Indeed it was, forcing 15 turnovers in the first half. Many of the turnovers led to fast-break layups, but the Blodgett-dominated half-court set was just as potent.

Blodgett scored 24 points before halftime, including Lawrence’s first 13 of the ballgame.

When Nokomis was able to beat the pressure, junior center Kelly Bowman was tough to stop. The 5-foot-10 Bowman scored 24 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, including several on press-breaking layups.

Cooper said the ‘Dogs try to make up for lack of size with their pressure defense.

“I hear it all the time,” Cooper said. “You don’t match up sizewise. But it takes two teams to match up. They don’t match up speedwise, so what are you going to want? The size or the speed?

“If it’s a half-court game, you want the size. If it’s a full-court game, you want the speed.”

This time, it was a full-court game, and Lawrence guard Jill Atwood, who scored 10 points, said a few layups against the press still serve to keep the tempo the way Lawrence wants it.

“If we can, we want to make them run and get tired,” Atwood said. “If we give up that long ball once in a while, it might be to our advantage. Just once in a while. Not all the time.”

After taking a 41-20 lead at tha half, the Bulldogs roared out of the gate in the third, scoring the first six points. But after Blodgett’s injury, Nokomis scored six straight to pull back within 21.

The return of a taped-up Blodgett led to another 11-2 run that increased the lead to 58-30.

Blodgett’s 39 points broke her record of 38 set last year. Her 16 field goals against Nokomis also set a record.

Bulldogs 75, Warriors 43

Nokomis girls Lawrence

Name AG G AF F TP Name AG G AF F TP

A. Stevens 1 1 0 0 2 York 1 1 0 0 2

Buker 8 1 0 0 3 W. Atwood 7 3 0 0 7

Grumbach 7 0 1 0 0 Blodgett 24 16 8 4 39

P. Stevens 2 0 0 0 0 Suttie 0 0 0 0 0

Burgess 2 0 0 0 0 Tabone 2 1 0 0 2

D. Brown 3 1 0 0 2 S. Roy 2 0 0 0 0

Bowman 14 10 8 4 24 Weymouth 7 4 0 0 8

J. Nye 2 1 0 0 2 C. Roy 1 1 0 0 2

K. Nye 13 1 2 2 5 J. Atwood 8 4 0 0 10

E. Brown 1 0 2 1 1 Clark 5 2 0 0 5

Pelkey 1 0 2 2 2 Jonassen 0 0 0 0 0

Walker 3 1 0 0 2 Francoeur 0 0 0 0 0

Lemire 1 0 0 0 0 Bogle 1 0 0 0 0

Brown 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 58 16 15 9 43 Totals 58 32 8 4 75

Nokomis 13 20 28 43

Lawrence 22 41 56 75

3-pt. goals: Nokomis (2-7): Buker 1-2, Grumbach 0-1, K. Nye 1-4; Lawrence (7-15): W. Atwood 1-4, Blodgett 3-6, J. Atwood 2-4, Clark 1-1