BANGOR – When Jerry Burleigh puts senior Shena Pineau into a ballgame, he’s never really sure of what he’s going to get.

Sometimes, she’ll be hot. Sometimes, she won’t.

“I never know what she’s gonna do,” Burleigh admitted after his No. 4 Minutemen of Millinocket had surged to a 63-49 win over No. 5 Lee Academy in an Eastern Maine Class C quarterfinal on Wednesday morning.

Burleigh does know one thing, however.

Pineau will create some offense.

“There’s no in-between with her,” Burleigh said. “She’s going to the hoop.”

Is she ever.

Pineau put on a whirling, attacking display that would have made the Tasmanian Devil proud, heading to the basket nearly every time she touched the ball.

She finished with 26 points and nine rebounds in only 20 minutes of action off the bench.

Most importantly, Pineau scored 14 of her points in the third period, as Stearns turned a 29-29 halftime tie into a 47-33 advantage.

The Minutemen held Lee without a field goal for more than 10 minutes over the second and third periods and turned a 36-25 Lee lead into a 42-30 bulge of their own.

The Minutemen improve to 13-6 and advance to take on No. 1 Calais in Friday’s 7:05 p.m. semifinal. Lee Academy finishes up 14-6.

Pineau’s explosion wasn’t without some cool spells, however.

“She came in when we were down five or six and she shot us back in the game, and then she went for three minutes and shot us back out of the game,” Burleigh said with a chuckle.

“And then she won the game in the third,” he said.

Pineau admitted that she perks up a bit when the Minutemen get the ball.

“I’ve always been an offensive player,” she said. “I can play defense, but it’s not my thing like offense.”

Stearns got 16 more points, 12 rebounds and two blocks from junior center Jen Raymond and a 10-point performance from Pam Pelletier.

Tori Nute scored 15 points and hauled down 11 rebounds for the Pandas. Ashley Linscott scored12.

The crucial Stearns run came after Burleigh had scrapped a wall-to-wall pressing attack and opted for a sagging man-to-man defense. In addition, he switched speedy Katie Nason onto Lee sparkplug Deidra Ham in order to limit her scoring chances.

Lee coach Carrie Goodhue said the new defense worked.

“We weren’t getting our drives. We weren’t getting our looks inside and we weren’t even getting our looks outside, either,” Goodhue said. “They were really aggressive.”

Minutemen 63, Pandas 49

Lee Academy girls (14-6) Stearns (13-6)

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

Bird 4 8 2 4 10 A. MacKenzie 1 5 2

Harris 0 1 0 0 0 Nason 0 6 2 2

Linscott 2 9 6 8 12 Pineau 10 24 11 26

Ham 1 6 5 6 7 J. Osborne 0 0 0

Hersom 1 2 1 4 3 K. MacKenzie 1 1 2

Cole 0 2 0 0 0 Boynton 0 4 2 2

Nute 6 12 3 7 15 L. Osborne 0 1 0

Gifford 1 5 0 0 2 Saucier 0 0 0 0

Shorey 0 0 0 0 0 Pelletier 5 13 10

Hanscom 0 0 0 0 0 Achorn 0 4 3 3

Raymond 6 13 4 16

Totals 15 45 17 29 49 Totals 23 71 17 32 63

Lee 12 29 33 49

Stearns 13 29 47 63

3-pt. goals ? Lee Acad. (2-5): Harris 0-1, Linscott 2-3, Gifford 0-1; Stearns (0-2): A. MacKenzie 0-2