BANGOR – Class D Woodland’s biggest rival in the Downeast Athletic Conference may be Class C Calais, but the Dragons don’t mind emulating the Blue Devils in the big games.

No. 1 Woodland used its tough man-to-man defense and full-court press to roll to a 60-36 victory over No. 8 Central Aroostook of Mars Hill in an Eastern Maine Class D tournament quarterfinal Tuesday afternoon at the Bangor Auditorium.

In Tuesday’s other Class D quarterfinal, No. 4 Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook jumped out to an early lead over No. 5 Katahdin of Sherman Station and withstood a Cougar rally for a 63-53 victory.

Woodland (16-3) and Southern Aroostook (14-5) will meet in a Class D semifinal Thursday at 7:05 p.m. for a berth in the Eastern Maine championship game.

Woodland got a well-rounded scoring effort and its press forced 40 Central Aroostook turnovers.

Five-foot-10 senior Kristina Huwa said the Dragons didn’t know much about the Panthers, but Woodland looked to the consistently successful Blue Devils. It doesn’t matter who Calais plays, she said – the Devils always come out strong.

“No matter how good [the opponent] is, we always think that they’re going to be tough to beat,” said Huwa, who had nine rebounds, five steals and four blocks. “That way we always play our best and we don’t slack off if we think they’re not such a good team.”

Woodland’s defense looked sharp and the team jumped out to 13-point first-quarter lead. The Dragons were up 39-16 at halftime and outscored the Panthers 12-9 in the third quarter, sparked by six Ashley Marble points in the first two minutes of the second half.

“It’s their height and their swarming defense,” Central Aroostook coach Julie Bradstreet said. “We’re not used to seeing that kind of pressure up where we play, so it was a big challenge for us.”

Marble finished with 13 points and seven rebounds. Julia Knights hit all six of her free-throw attempts and scored 12 points for the Dragons. Jessica Noyes added 10 points.

Jessica Long had a team-high 10 points for Central Aroostook (13-8). Stevi Fletcher came off the bench to score seven points and grab eight rebounds.

In Tuesday morning’s game, Nicki Lyons poured in 21 points and the Warriors went 23-for-34 from the free-throw line en route to the win.

Southern Aroostook had a 10-point halftime lead thanks to its perimeter shooting.

“We just tried to get it inside and tried to kick it back outside, to try to leave our outside people open,” said Lyons, who made 11 of her 12 free-throw attempts.

Katahdin (13-8) climbed back into the game in the second half. The Warriors were ahead 40-31 at the end of the third quarter when Katahdin’s Lindsay Duffy-Stanley hit a 20-footer at the buzzer.

Krystle McMoarn opened the fourth quater with a basket for the Cougars to make it 40-36. After Lyons hit two free throws, Mindy Libby (21 points) scored off a rebound and Sonya McCarthy made two free throws to cut the Warrior lead to 42-40. But Southern Aroostook went on a 14-6 run to bolster its advantage.

Katahdin started the game in a zone defense with 5-9 Lacey Willett and 5-8 Angela Qualey under the basket, but when the Warriors started to heat up from the outside, coach Dick Barstow had his Cougars come out in man-to-man in the second half.

The defensive change cooled down Southern Aroostook somewhat, but Katahdin still had trouble guarding the Warriors.

“They’ve got a lot of quickness and that’s the thing that really hurt us,” Barstow said. “And they shot well today. They shot very well. Those kinds of things, it’s tough to fight against.”

Kristi Brooker added 11 points and Nicole Green had 10 for Southern Aroostook.

Dragons 60, Panthers 36

Central Aroostook (13-8) Woodland (16-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Smith 2 6 1 2 5 Marble 6 17 13

Carvell 0 1 1 2 1 Brown 2 5 4

Caron 0 3 3 5 3 Huwa 1 4 2

Robinson 1 3 0 1 2 Snowman 0 1 0

Bell 1 4 0 1 2 Leeman 2 3 4 8

McCrum 0 5 0 0 0 Smith 2 4 4

Fletcher 1 2 5 8 7 Troiani 3 4 6

Barton 0 1 0 0 0 Lord 0 0 1

Lundeen 0 6 0 0 0 Holmes 0 1 0

Michaud 3 3 0 0 6 Noyes 4 13 10

Long 3 6 3 5 10 Knights 3 6 6 12

Vose 0 1 0 0

Woodruff 0 1 0

Newman 0 0 0 0

Totals 11 40 13 24 36 23 60 12 25 60

Central Aroostook 9 16 25 36

Woodland 22 39 51 60

3-pt. goals: Central Aroostook (1-1): Long 1-1; Woodland (2-3): Marble 1-1, Noyes 1-2

Warriors 63, Cougars 53

Katahdin girls (13-8) Southern Aroostook (14-5)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Perrin 0 0 0 0 0 Hartin 2 4 4

LDuffy-Stanley 2 6 2 2 7 Chambers 6

McMoarn 3 4 0 0 6 Porter 0 0 2

KDuffy-Stanley 0 1 0 0 0 Brooker 3 11

Me. Libby 3 6 1 1 7 Lyons 4 10 11 12 21

MDuffy-Stanley 0 1 0 0 0 Toothaker 0

McCarthy 0 7 4 5 4 McGary 0 0 0

Qualey 2 5 0 0 4 Crandall 0 0

Mi. Libby 10 23 0 1 21 Boutilier 0 0

Willett 0 7 4 5 4 Brisley 0 0 0

Hersey 0 0 1 1

Dickinson 3 6 8

Green 3 7 2 10

Violette 0 0 0

Totals 20 60 11 14 53 18 41 23 34 63

Katahdin 6 20 34 53

Southern Aroostook 14 30 40 63

3-pt. goals: Katahdin (2-14): L. Duffy-Stanley 1-2, Mi. Libby 1-6, Qualey 0-1, Me. Libby 0-2, McCarthy 0-3; Southern Aroostook (4-7): Lyons 2-3, Green 2-2, Brooker 0-2