Early spurt carries MDI past No. 1 Camden Hills

loading...

BANGOR – The No. 5 Mount Desert Island girls basketball team showed off a strong first-quarter effort and Melissa Gott poured in 20 points as the Trojans knocked off No. 1 Camden Hills in an Eastern Maine Class B semifinal Wednesday night at the Bangor Auditorium.

MDI rolled out to a 16-point lead in the first quarter and held off the Windjammers 58-47 for a berth in Saturday’s regional final.

The Trojans will face No. 7 Foxcroft Academy, a winner over No. 3 Erskine of South China Wednesday afternoon. MDI, now 18-3, beat Foxcroft twice in the regular season.

Camden Hills, the state Class B champion last year, wraps up its season with a 14-5 record.

MDI pumped the ball inside to the 6-foot-1 Gott immediately, and she responded with eight points in the first 2 minutes, 32 seconds. But the Trojans are dangerous because of the outside shooting as well – Bracey Barker and Shelley Gott, Melissa Gott’s sister, each hit jumpers in the first quarter.

“We wanted to get it inside to Melissa because we’ve been trying all year to,” Barker said. “In this game we got it in to her and she was making her shots and it was working.”

MDI had an 18-2 lead with 1:58 left in the period. The Windjammers righted themselves even though the Trojans outscored Camden Hills 15-10 in the second quarter.

The ‘Jammers kicked in their press and outside shooting, and got back into it in the third quarter with some fast-break baskets and jumpers. Towards the end of the third period Toni-Lynn Robbins connected off the break to cut the lead to 11, then Megan Dailey hit a free throw for a 39-29 MDI lead.

“It’s all about believing in yourself,” Camden Hills’ coach Jay Carlsen said. “This is a young group and for them to come in here and respond after being down, it’s just a great statement to these kids’ heart and resiliency and efforts.”

Free-throw shooting was key for both teams in the fourth. Camden’s Lauren Withey went 9-for-9 from the free-throw line, while Barker made all six of her attempts.

“I think we kind of ran out of gas in the third quarter, but we picked it up,” Barker said. “The crowd was cheering so loud.”

The Windjammers got a stellar effort from 6-foot junior Withey in the second half. Withey scored 13 of her game-high 25 points in the fourth period. She also had eight rebounds.

Withey scored Camden Hills’ first 11 points of the game.

Bracey Barker, the daughter of MDI coach Burt Barker, chipped in with 14 points, six rebounds and four assists. Shelley Gott, Melissa Gott’s sister, scored 12 points and had five assists.

Trojans 58, Windjammers 47

MDI (18-3) Camden Hills (15-5)

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

Chernosky 2 3 1 2 5 Dailey 0 6 1

Osier 0 0 0 0 0 Russo 1 6 0 3

Stanley 0 0 0 0 0 Sommo 3 5 0 6

Horton 2 3 1 3 5 Robbins 3 7 0 6

S. Gott 4 9 2 5 12 Wood 0 1 0 0

Barker 3 7 8 8 14 Croce 2 8 0 4

Kane 1 2 0 2 2 Withey 7 15 9 25

M. Gott 10 13 0 1 20 Carleton 0 0 0

Goodale 0 1 0 0

Hoffman 1 5 0 2

McIntyre 0 0 0

Totals 22 37 12 21 58 17 54 10 15 47

MDI 18 33 39 58

Camden Hills 7 17 29 47

3-pt. goals: MDI (2-4): S. Gott 2-3, Barker 0-1; Camden Hills (3-7): Withey 2-3, Russo 1-3, Dailey