BANGOR – This hasn’t been the easiest postseason for the Calais girls basketball team. The relatively small Blue Devils have ended up playing teams with solid post players. They lost one of their top scorers and rebounders for the tournament. And the Devils’ bench isn’t exactly that deep.

But Calais has a few important advantages: The Blue Devils are experienced in the Eastern Maine Class C tournament; four of the Calais starters played on its 1999 state championship team.

And the Blue Devils have Lanna Martin.

The combination proved fruitful yet again for the No. 1 Blue Devils Saturday night in the regional championship game against No. 3 Mattanawcook of Lincoln at the Bangor Auditorium.

Martin, a 5-foot-7 junior guard-forward, scored 15 of her game-high 20 points in the second half and chipped in with a team-high seven rebounds as the Blue Devils cruised to a 63-49 victory of the Lynx for Calais’ eighth EM championship.

The Blue Devils (20-1) meet undefeated Western Maine champion Dirigo of Dixfield in Friday’s 7:40 p.m. state championship game at the Bangor Auditorium. It will be the fifth time in six years the two teams in have matched up in the final.

Mattanawcook wraps up its season with a 16-5 record and the satisfaction of getting further than any other MA team has ever been.

After vanquishing Stearns of Millinocket in the Eastern Maine semifinals, Calais was satisfied it could keep taller teams from gaining the upper hand.

But the Lynx presented a problem: They had handed the Blue Devils their only loss of the season. Calais turned around at home and beat MA, but that was with Morgan Drew, the Devils’ top rebounder, who did not play in the tournament (school officials are not commenting on the reasons why).

In the Lynx’ home win they had pumped the ball inside where there were no matchups for 5-10 Desirae Haines and 5-10 Kate Head.

“We knew [going against MA in the tourney] was going to be tough. We knew we were going to have to hit the boards and play awesome defense,” Martin said.

This time around Calais brought a weapon: A 2-3 zone that bottled up the middle and complemented its press. The Lynx may have outrebounded the Blue Devils 26-18, but Calais forced 27 MA turnovers.

“They have a tremendous press,” MA coach Terri Thornton said. “Calais is going to force those turnovers. There’s only so much you can do with that pressure.”

The Blue Devils also got offensive output from Nanci Feck, who hit two 3-pointers en route to nine points. Kari Redding, who has been starting in place of Drew, went 5-for-8 from the floor for 13 points. Crystal Martin, Lanna’s sister, had seven steals and five assists.

Katie Frost had another fine game as she made all six of her free-throw attempts and finished with 13 points.

“Everybody has stepped up. It took us awhile to adjust but everyone’s gotten into the flow,” coach Bob McShane said.

Part of the Calais game plan was to stop MA guard Brandi Rideout. She had three fouls (two were player-control calls) by the end of the first quarter and scored eight points.

“We knew the offensive foul was on our side if we could take the charge on penetration, because [she] loves to penetrate,” Feck said. “We decided to pack it in on the zone because they didn’t seem to outside shoot a lot, and let them bring it to us.”

Senior Cassie Carver led MA with 15 points and six rebounds.

Blue Devils 63, Lynx 44

Mattanawcook girls (16-5) Calais (20-1)

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

Kyes 1 2 0 0 2 C. Martin 2 6 6

Harvey 0 0 0 0 0 Ludington 0 0 0

Rideout 3 7 2 2 8 Frost 3 11 6 13

Carver 6 14 3 5 15 L. Martin 9 12 20

Shorey 0 1 0 0 0 Feck 3 11 1 9

Gulesian 0 2 0 0 0 Redding 5 8 13

Kenney 0 0 0 0 0 Welch 1 1 0 2

Woodman 0 0 0 0 0 Price 0 0 0 0

Slike 0 0 0 0 0 Smith 0 0 0 0

Haines 4 8 1 2 9 Best 0 0 0 0

Vance 2 3 0 0 4

Head 3 3 0 0 6

Totals 19 40 6 9 44 23 49 12 13 63

Mattanawcook 10 17 29 44

Calais 16 31 49 63

3-pt. goals ? Mattanawcook (0-4): Kyes 0-1, Rideout 0-3; Calais (5-10): Feck 2-4, L. Martin 1-1, Redding 1-2, Frost 1-3