Gardner helps Orono tip Bapst Red Riots vs. Minutemen in final

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BANGOR – If father truly does know best, the Orono girls basketball team has been using an ineligible player.

After watching his daughter, Red Riot guard Susan Gardner, calmly drain four free throws in the final 13 seconds to clinch Wednesday’s 42-38 Eastern Maine Class B semifinal win over John Bapst, proud coach Steve Gardner shared a secret: His daughter shouldn’t feel any yearling angst in her Bangor Auditorium debut this season.

“I don’t think she’s a freshman,” the coach said. “I think she lied. I think when she came out she was five years old or something.”

The Red Riots, now 16-4, advanced to take on Stearns in the regional final at 2:05 p.m. Saturday. Stearns of Millinocket downed Mount Desert Island 32-28 in Wednesday’s other semifinal. John Bapst finished at 10-9.

After Orono called timeout with 19 seconds left and a 38-38 score, Gardner drove down the lane and drew a foul, making both resulting free throws to make it 40-38. She added two more free throws with four seconds left.

Gardner scored eight of the Riots’ final 11 points over the last 5:19, but Orono relied as much on its defense down the stretch.

Bapst managed only one hoop – a layup by Becky Goggins that staked John Bapst to a 38-37 lead with 1:28 to go – in the final four minutes. And while Orono connected on 13 of 15 free throw attempts, John Bapst struggled, making four of 11.

Three of those misses came in the final 3:11.

Though frustrated with the misses, John Bapst coach Lenny Miragliuolo was pleased with his team’s effort.

“I don’t have anything to be ashamed of. Our kids don’t either,” he said.

After Goggins’ final hoop, Belinda Hamilton pulled the Riots even, making the first of two free throws with 24 seconds left. Hamilton gathered in the rebound of her own miss on the second shot and a timeout set the stage for Gardner.

Amy Taylor sparked Orono early in the fourth, scoring a hoop and a 3-pointer in the opening three minutes. She finished with 13.

Orono contained John Bapst’s 6-foot-2 Goggins with a collapsing 3-2 zone and occasionally went to a box-and-one on slashing wing forward Andrea Pardilla. Goggins finished with 18 points.

“We were trying to pressure the ball, keep the ball away from Pardilla in the corner and keep it from going inside,” Steve Gardner said.

In Tuesday’s other `B’ semifinal, two punishing workouts put in since the quarterfinals paid dividends for No. 2 Stearns in its 32-28 win over No. 6 MDI. Forget positive reinforcement. Coach Jerry Burleigh took his team to drill camp.

“We started practices with what we do the first day of practice,” Burleigh said. “Shuffles. Shells. Figure eights. Zig zags. We worked defense for an hour.

“Your offense might not be there sometime. But you’ve got to make ’em believe that your defense can hold you.”

It did. With forward Cara Moir holding MDI standout Anna Hathaway to just seven shots from the field, and speedy guard Rachelle Cummings hounding counterpart Jamey Lewis, the Minutemen made MDI work for each shot.

And after the teams harrassed each other into a 15-14 halftime score, Stearns forward Kelly Gates broke loose.

With the Trojans focusing on Moir inside and on Jennifer Alley at the high post, senior Kelly Gates took over, scoring 10 of her game-high 14 points.

“They weren’t giving Cara much inside, so I felt like I had to start stepping up and shooting,” Gates said.

First, she scored six points to spark the Minutemen to a 24-19 lead after three quarters.

And when MDI battled to within one point twice during the fourth, she nailed identical 14-footers from the left side of the foul line. The second made it 28-25 with 2:30 left. Cummings protected the ball after that, making three free throws.

Moir and Alley had nine and eight rebounds, respectively, for 17-3 Stearns.

MDI, which finished at 11-8, got 12 points from Hathaway. Jill Pelletier netted 10.

Minutemen 32, Trojans 28

MDI girls Stearns

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

Barker 2 3 0 2 4 Boynton 0 1 0 0 0

Emory 0 0 0 0 0 Gates 7 14 0 0 14

Pelletier 4 7 2 3 10 MacArthur 1 3 0 0 2

Hathaway 5 7 0 0 12 Moir 0 4 3 4 3

Lewis 1 7 0 0 2 Alley 2 8 0 1 4

Weiss 0 1 0 0 0 Cummings 3 6 3 7 9

Kane 0 2 0 0 0 Ryan 0 1 0 0 0

Slack 0 2 0 0 0

Totals 12 29 2 5 28 Totals 13 37 6 12 32

Mount Desert Island 6 14 21 28

Stearns 6 14 24 32

3-pt. goals: MDI (2-3): Hathaway 2-3; Stearns (0-0)

Red Riots 42, Crusaders 38

John Bapst girls Orono

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

Collenburg 4 7 1 2 9 Freese 2 9 2 2 6

Lolar 2 8 1 5 5 Hamilton 1 4 1 2 3

Berry 0 1 0 0 0 Cota 0 2 0 0 0

Pardilla 2 8 0 0 4 Zoerheide 0 1 0 0 0

McCabe 0 4 0 0 0 Taylor 6 14 0 0 13

M. Goggins 1 2 0 0 2 Locke 0 0 0 0 0

B. Goggins 8 16 2 4 18 Gagnon 1 3 1 2 3

Dekanich 0 1 0 0 0

Gardner 4 7 9 9 17

Totals 17 46 4 11 38 Totals 14 41 13 15 42

John Bapst 9 17 28 38

Orono 8 13 24 42

3-pt. goals: John Bapst (0-1): Lolar 0-1; Orono (1-5): Freese 0-1, Taylor 1-2, Gardner 0-2