Woodland to play Calais for crown

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BANGOR – At about the beginning of January, with a losing record, Woodland girls basketball coach Don Roffey decided to put a press defense in place.

That decision paid off in a big way Friday afternoon as the No. 7 Dragons knocked off No. 3 Schenck of East Millinocket 64-59 in overtime for its second upset of the week.

Woodland (15-5), will play top-seeded Calais (19-1), which won the evening semifinal against No. 5 Narraguagus of Harrington 74-47, for the Class C regional final at the Auditorium at 7:05 p.m. Saturday. Schenck finishes its season at 14-6 and the Knights wrap up at 12-6.

The evening game was the final one for Narraguagus coach Marie Smith, who has resigned, according to assistant coach Rena Perry.

Woodland’s press hounded Schenck into 24 turnovers, including 17 in the second half.

“We’ve been working on it since the second half of the season,” Roffey said. “I figured we had the speed for it, so why not put it in?”

The Wolverines led through three quarters concurrent with a rebounding advantage. But in the fourth quarter the smaller Dragons outrebounded the Wolverines 12-6. And the boards they grabbed down the stretch were huge, like Angela Robb’s rebound off a missed free throw with 2:44 left in regulation cut Schenck’s lead to 51-48.

Ashley Marble had another key rebound with the game tied at 55-55 with 20 seconds left when she grabbed a missed free throw. She subsequently fouled out of the game but Schenck’s Erin Johnston missed both of her free-throw attempts with 4.4 seconds left.

The fourth quarter ended when Johnston made a steal and time expired. In overtime, Woodland’s Julia Knights and Jessica Noyes each scored a basket and Robb hit two free throws to help seal the win.

Robb finished with a team-high 17 points along with 14 rebounds, five assists and three steals. Marble scored 14 points but was more impressive working the press for six steals and six rebounds. Knights went 11 for 15 from the free-throw line for 15 points and Noyes added 12, including six in the fourth quarter.

Free-throw shooting was key in the fourth quarter and overtime periods, with the Dragons going 14-for-25 in the final periods. The Wolverines made six of their 16 attempts.

“That was something we didn’t do too well with earlier in the week,” Robb said. “So we worked on it in practice this week and it helped a lot.”

Johnston led both teams with 22 points and Rachel Larlee added 10 points and 13 rebounds for Schenck.

In Friday’s other semifinal, it was Lanna Martin’s turn to be the high scorer as the freshman guard finished with 24 points on 11-for-13 shooting from the field. As a team, the Blue Devils made 32 of their 62 attempts.

The Knights were stunned in the first quarter when point guard Meagan Skinner went down with an injury to her right ankle one minute into the game. She was not able to return and Calais jumped out to a 44-18 halftime lead.

“She gave us a boost in spirit and defense in the quarterfinal,” Perry said. “We definitely missed her.”

Narraguagus showed some life in the third quarter when they scored 17 points, but the dreaded Calais press had already done the damage.

“They played a great third quarter,” Calais coach Bob McShane said. “If they had played four quarters like that we would have been in trouble.”

Martin said the Calais defense concentrated on denying 6-foot center Brittany Howe in the post. Howe finished with 10 points.

“She’s a strong, powerful inside player,” Martin said. “We had to focus on her.”

Calais freshmen Katie Frost and Morgan Drew scored 13 and 10 points, respectively. Senior Rachael Clark added 11 points.

Senior forward Missa Merserve paced the Knights with 12 points.

Perry said Smith has been the head coach at Narraguagus for three years and is leaving to spend more time with her family.

“What she’s done there is remarkable,” McShane said. “You’d like to see someone like that go out in a better way. I just have so much respect for her.”

Class C girls

Dragons 64, Wolverines 55 (OT)

Woodland girls (15-5) Schenck (14-6)

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

Marble 5 14 4 7 14 Johnston 9 15 2 9 22

Brown 0 2 0 0 0 Davis 2 5 0 0 4

Huwa 0 1 0 0 0 Nic. Brown 0 0 0 0 0#

Seavey 3 11 0 0 6 Chavarie 1 2 1 2 3

Robb 6 18 5 8 17 Glidden 2 3 4 5 8

Stoddard 0 0 0 0 0 Franck 2 8 4 6 8

Noyes 4 13 4 8 12 Birt 0 3 2 2 2

Smith 0 2 0 0 0 Nik. Brown 0 1 2 2 2

Knights 2 4 11 15 15 Larlee 2 7 6 9 10

Williams 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 20 66 24 38 64 Totals 18 44 21 35 59

Woodland 6 18 36 55 64

Schenck 10 28 45 55 59

3-pt. goals: Woodland (0-7): Seavey 0-1, Robb 0-4, Noyes 0-2; Schenck (2-7): Johnston 2-4, Chavarie 0-1, Franck 0-1, Larlee 0-1

Narraguagus (12-6) Calais (19-1)

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

Snider 3 12 0 0 6 Goodine 1 2 0 0 2

Meserve 5 12 2 2 12 B. Churchill 1 2 0 0 2

Portrie 4 6 0 2 8 Redding 2 3 0 1 4

N. Barbee 1 2 0 0 2 DeWitt 2 4 0 0 4

K. Barbee 3 5 1 2 7 Drew 4 10 1 3 10

Beal 1 2 0 1 2 Clark 4 12 3 4 11

Howe 4 7 2 2 10 Frost 5 10 2 3 13

Skinner 0 0 0 0 0 Feck 2 6 0 0 4

Farnsworth 0 2 0 0 0 Martin 11 13 1 2 24

Woodsum 0 0 0 0 0 Daggett 0 0 0 0 0

Bailey 0 1 0 0 0 Reynolds 0 0 0 0 0

Caler 0 1 0 0 0 K. Churchill 0 0 0 0 0

Foster 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 21 50 5 9 47 Totals 32 62 7 13 74

Narraguagus 4 18 35 47

Calais 11 44 63 74

3-pt. goals: Narraguagus (0-6): Snider 0-3, Farnsworth 0-2, Meserve 0-1; Calais: (3-7): Martin 1-3, Frost 1-3, Drew 1-1