HOWLAND – It’s a good thing the Penobscot Valley girls basketball team had its best-ever free-throw shooting game so far this season against Schenck Thursday evening.

Neither PVHS nor the Wolverines of East Millinocket shot well from the floor in the Eastern Maine Class C matchup at George Sereyko Memorial Gymnasium. But PVHS got to the line more often, and hit key free throws to earn a 4 1-34 victory.

Alicia Drost and Meagan Cyr led the way for 2-4 Penobscot Valley, working through shooting slumps to score 15 and 12 points, respectively.

Both teams made 14 field goals, and had similar shooting percentages (34.1 for Penobscot Valley, 33.3 for Schenck).

The difference came at the charity stripe. The Howlers went 13-for-18 from the line, while the Wolverines hit just three of their eight attempts.

Bianca Colbath made all six of her free-throw attempts en route to eight points, and Drost went 5-for-6.

“We got to the line a lot, and that was key,” PVHS coach Hank Doyon said. “Games past we might have been at the line nine, 10 times.”

Wolverines coach Greg Friel said his squad has taken more shots than its opponents in the first three games this year – make Thursday’s game the fourth – and have lost each time.

“Every game’s been like this,” he said. “[It’s] just real poor shooting. We tried to get a little better shot selection. We’ve been forcing some. The foul line? Our best game has been 50 percent.”

Schenck is also without a dominant center this season. That, compounded with the Wolverines’ shooting woes, made Penobscot Valley’s defense all the more effective.

The Howlers played zone for much of the game, started out in a 1-3-1 to clog up the middle.

“I think we did really well adjusting our defenses,” Drost said. “… We switched defenses quick in transition. We did a lot better [than previous games].”

After a 6-for-19 performance from the floor in the first half, Drost and Cyr came out of halftime firing. The two juniors combined to make seven of 11 field-goal attempts, and PVHS had a 33-21 lead at the end of the third quarter. Cyr had four steals in the period.

“We picked up on our defense,” she said. “Usually when our defense gets going then our offense starts to go from there.”

Shannon Chavarie and Kasey Wyman of Schenck helped the Wolverines rally to within four points in the fourth quarter while Schenck’s defense held the Howlers to one early field goal.

After Audrey Porter scored on a layup to open the period, Chavarie hit two straight jump shots, including a 20-footer, to make it 35-26.

Later in the quarter, with the Howlers up 39-29, Wyman scored off a steal and swished a 3-pointer from the left baseline to cut the lead to 39-34 with 1:50 left.

After back-and-forth possessions resulting in jump balls or missed shots, Colbath made two free throws with 25.7 seconds left to ice Penobscot Valley’s win.

Wyman scored a game-high 16 points and hit six of her 10 shots.

Drost pulled down eight rebounds. Alicia Cram led Schenck with six.

Howlers 41, Wolverines 34

Schenck (0-4) Penobscot Valley (2-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP

Farrington 0 1 0 0 0 Colbath 1 6 6 6 8

Davis 1 6 0 0 2 Porter 1 6 2 4 4

Gordon 0 6 0 0 0 Young 0 0 0 0 0

Chavarie 3 11 1 2 8 Cyr 6 16 0 2 12

Wyman 6 10 2 4 16 S. Trafton 1 5 0 0 2

Tapley 0 1 0 0 0 Drost 5 8 5 6 15

Jones 1 2 0 0 2 K. Trafton 0 0 0 0 0

Cram 3 5 0 2 6 Beshai 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 14 42 3 8 34 Totals 14 41 13 18 41

Schenck 6 12 21 34

Penobscot Valley 9 17 33 41

3-pt. goals: Schenck (3-8): Wyman 2-4, Chavarie 1-2, Davis 0-2; Penobscot Valley (0-2): Colbath 0-1, Cyr 0-1

Attendance: 250 (est.)

Preliminary: Penobscot Valley JVs 37-28