March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Old Town finds killer instinct to top Lawrence; Cony wins

BANGOR – After watching leads slip away through the regular season, the Indians finally discovered their own killer instinct in the nick of time.

Stopping Lawrence of Fairfield’s early third quarter run, Old Town put together a 15-6 sprint en route to a 48-46 Class A quarterfinal schoolgirl basketball win at the Bangor Auditorium Saturday morning.

“The way we got in trouble this year was this: you know how you’re up by 10 and you can’t put it away without a killer instinct, but sometimes you’re down by five and it’s over?” Old Town coach Garry Spencer asked. “We’ve been coming up on the short end of a lot of those.”

The treat the Indians earned for their breakthrough is a trip to the semifinals against 19-0 Cony of Augusta, which easily dispatched Skowhegan 73-45 in the afternoon session, at 7:10 p.m. Thursday.

Old Town’s timeout with 6:37 remaining in the third quarter effectively quashed the Bulldogs 7-0 opening charge, as the fifth-seeded Indians switched from a zone to man-to-man defense.

“We didn’t want them to stand out there and hold it on us,” Spencer. “So what we were going to do is pressure the 3’s and we were going to drop step to take away their penetration.”

From there, Old Town’s Andrea Pardilla, Abbi Susi and reserve Keri Crean each netted two to open up a 36-32 lead at the end of the third period.

The Bulldogs bit back with a pair of Erika Veilleux post field goals before Liz Boyden and Chrissy Roy each nailed a 3-pointer, to take the lead 44-41 with 2:17 remaining.

Veilleux, who popped in six of her team’s 14 in the fourth quarter charge, finished wtih 17 points, and Roy added 10 points and seven rebounds.

Pardilla, who finished with 16 points, tied it with her eighth free throw of the game at 1:27, before collecting her own rebound from her failed second attempt and nailing an 8-footer from outside the lane.

The 5-foot-11 sophomore sealed the victory with a halfcourt steal and fed Denise Case at the post to take a 48-44 lead with 51 seconds remaining.

“We just threw the ball away,” Lawrence coach Bruce Cooper said. “We had three trips down the floor where we threw the ball away, had no shots, and the kids weren’t coming to the ball, and Old Town stepped up.”

Pardilla led the 13-6 Indians with 16 points, including seven of the Indians’ 13 second-quarter points.

Cony’s vaunted fullcourt press and Roadrunner-and-Coyote tempo offense turned out to be too much for a very young Skowhegan.

“They wore us down and took control and the turnovers were too much,” Skowhegan coach Tammie Veinotte said. “We concentrated as hard as we could on controlling the tempo, and when they did double team us, to catch, face and look, because in the double team we were looking for the open man. That was our focus all week.”

It wasn’t a week spent poorly as the No. 8 Indians trailed 36-25 at the half.

Much of their success arrived on the back of 5-8 sophomore Amanda Bourgoin, who ripped down eight of her 11 rebounds and seven of her 12 game points in the half.

But after a lecture on the importance of grabbing the defensive rebound, the 19-0 Rams took care of business, outscoring the Indians 37-20 down the stretch.

“That’s what we screamed on at halftime,” Cony coach Paul Vachon said. “I think the first three possessions of the second half, we got the defensive rebounds, and we ran and we got transition baskets and that put us up.”

But going to the bench early and often also paid off for Cony, as eight reserves put together 23 points, including 11 in the second half.

Forward Christine Huber led the senior-laden Rams with 16 points and eight rebounds, and Amy Vachon chipped in 15 points and four steals.

Rams 73, Indians 45

Skowhegan (11-8) Cony girls (19-0)

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

Albert 0 1 0 0 0 Frye 1 2 0 0 3

Dinan 0 1 0 0 0 Foster 3 4 0 0 9

Bedard 0 0 0 0 0 Riese 3 8 0 0 9

Kempton 0 0 0 0 0 Vachon 4 7 6 11 15

Corson 1 2 0 0 2 Pridham 3 10 2 4 8

Hilton 2 2 0 0 4 Nimon 0 0 0 0 0

Grant 0 4 0 2 0 L.LaR’chelle 0 3 1 2 1

Hight 5 12 1 2 12 R.LaR’chelle 1 5 0 1 2

Bourgoin 5 13 2 5 12 Gardiner 2 3 0 3 4

Bosworth 3 5 0 0 7 Lord 0 0 0 0 0

Anzelc 2 3 2 2 6 Huber 6 12 4 5 16

Shay 0 1 0 0 0 Morin 1 4 4 5 6

Burns 1 1 0 0 2 McKenney 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 19 45 5 11 45 Totals 24 59 17 31 73

Skowhegan 10 25 31 45

Cony 18 36 55 73

3-pt. goals: Skowhegan (2-6): Albert 0-1, Hight 1-3, Bosworth 1-1, Shay 0-1; Cony (8-24): Frye 1-2, Foster 3-4, Riese 3-8, Vachon 1-1, Pridham 0-3, L. LaRochelle 0-2, R. LaRochelle 0-2, Huber 0-1, Morin 0-1

Indians 48, Bulldogs 46

Old Town (13-6) Lawrence girls (14-5)

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

Chaisson 0 0 1 2 1 Boyden 2 3 0 0 6

Emerson 2 4 0 0 4 Lovitz 0 1 0 0 0

Case 2 3 1 6 5 Stedman 0 0 0 0 0

Crean 4 6 0 0 8 Roy 3 14 3 4 10

Pardilla 4 10 8 10 16 Veilleux 6 15 5 7 17

Brown 3 8 2 2 8 M. Clark 2 12 2 2 7

Susi 2 10 2 2 6 S. Clark 1 2 2 2 4

Ryan 1 3 0 0 2

Totals 17 41 14 22 48 Totals 15 50 12 15 46

Old Town 8 21 36 48

Lawrence 7 19 32 46

3-pt. goals: Old Town (0-2): Emerson 0-1, Case 0-1; Lawrence (4-18): Boyden 2-3, Lovitz 0-1, Roy 1-5, Veilleux 0-4, M. Clark 1-5


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