BAR HARBOR – It’s been about 15 years since the Bangor and Mount Desert Island girls basketball teams faced each other in the regular season.

There’s not much recent history between the Class A Rams and the Class B Trojans, and the outcome of Wednesday night’s matchup wouldn’t affect the winner or the loser much in the Heal Point standings, but both teams were eager to see how they would fare – Bangor against a top center, and MDI against a deep, athletic Ram team.

Bangor’s defense proved to be a step quicker than MDI in the game at Bernard Parady Gymnasium. The Rams’ zone shut down 6-foot-1 center Melissa Gott and Bangor held off a late MDI run to earn a 53-45 victory.

The Rams go to 4-1 while the Trojans drop to 6-1.

“We needed a pickup because our spirits were pretty low [after losing to Nokomis of Newport Saturday],” said junior forward Katherine Miller, who finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds. “This will help carry us through the season.”

What should also carry the Rams is the emergence of several backup players who earned starts Wednesday, as well as a stellar rebounding effort against Gott. But Bangor nearly lost it after MDI outscored the Rams 29-16 in the second half.

Bangor took a 22-point lead into the locker room, but the Trojans emerged from halftime with some fire, going on a 12-2 run sparked by a Bracey Barker 3-pointer. The Rams managed to hold on to a 15-point lead later in the fourth quarter, but baskets from Gott and Beth Chernosky and two Tab Osier 3-pointers sliced Bangor’s lead to 49-43. The Trojans were within six points with 27.9 seconds left thanks to two Barker free throws, but Ram guard Melissa Achorn responded with two free throws of her own at the 19.5 mark to seal the win.

Terra Curtis led Bangor with 16 points, going 3-for-6 from the 3-point arc. Katherine Miller and Alison Smith each added 12 for the Rams.

As for rebounds, the Rams had an all-around effort. In addition to Miller’s 12 rebounds, sophomore Sarah Michaud grabbed seven in her first career start, Curtis had six and Smith had five.

Gott finished with a team-high 13 rebounds. No other MDI players had more than three.

“Our rebounding was tremendous,” Miller said. “[MDI has] incredible size. It would have been really easy for them to get second shots, so we practiced rebounding all week in preparation for this game.”

Bangor played a tough 2-3 zone that collapsed on Gott, holding her to six points on two baskets and two free throws. She had been averaging 18.8 points per game.

“Bangor’s defense was something we haven’t seen this year, just the quickness of it and how they hustled,” said Trojans’ coach Burt Barker, who is Bracey Barker’s father. “I don’t think we were ready for that defense of that caliber. I think in the second half we adjusted well to it and made a pretty good run on them.”

Michaud and senior guard Erica Prudente both started for the first time Wednesday. Prudente, Melissa Achorn and Ashley Tower have been filling in over the past two games because of an injury to senior point guard Jlynn Frazier.

“My role is defense, to get in their face and shut them down. That’s what we did,” Prudente said.

Shelley Gott, Melissa’s sister, scored 12 points for MDI. Bracey Barker added 11.

Rams 53, Trojans 45

Bangor (4-1) Mount Desert Island (6-1)

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

Prudente 0 2 0 0 0 Chernosky 2 4

Tower 2 4 0 0 5 Osier 2 4 0 6

Achorn 0 1 4 5 4 Stanley 0 1 0 0

Miller 6 10 0 2 12 Horton 2 8 0 4

Curtis 6 11 1 1 16 S. Gott 4 15 3 12

Smith 5 14 2 2 12 Barker 3 13 4 11

Michaud 2 4 0 1 4 Baldwin 1 1 0 2

Magee 0 0 0 0 0 M. Gott 2 12 2 6

Warner 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 21 47 7 11 53 Totals 16 57 9 14 45

Bangor 17 37 45 53

MDI 9 16 30 45

3-pt. goals: Bangor (4-9): Curtis 3-6, Tower 1-2, Prudente 0-1; MDI (4-15): Osier 2-2, S. Gott 1-3, Barker 1-6, Horton 0-4

Attendance: 400 (est.)

Preliminary: Bangor JVs 58-44