Crown built on Marble Dragons’ press sinks Tigerettes

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BANGOR – Scoring the 1,000th point of her career Saturday morning didn’t appear to matter all that much to Ashley Marble. Neither did the 34 points she had just scored. It was the plaque that mattered. The one that proclaimed her Woodland Dragons the Eastern Maine Class D girls champions.

And standing in a cold, noisy hallway at the Bangor Auditorium following her team’s convincing 74-43 disposal of Shead of Eastport, Marble made her case.

“I was really nervous at the beginning of the game. I was shaking. I mean, 1,000 points I can get anytime, but getting an Eastern Maine championship, I thought that was awesome,” the junior said.

The Dragons, 18-3, will meet Rangeley in Thursday’s 7 p.m. state championship game at the Bangor Auditorium. Rangeley edged Richmond 53-32 in the Western Maine Class D championship game Saturday night in Augusta.

Marble needn’t have been nervous. Her coach, Arnie Clark, had seen this coming for weeks. He all but predicted a Woodland-Shead final several weeks before the tournament began. Although Shead would enter the tourney as the sixth seed, Clark knew what the Tigerettes were capable of.

“The thing of it is,” Clark said Saturday, “of the teams that I’ve seen this year in Class D, I haven’t seen a team that would put the defensive pressure on Shead that was required to get them out of their game plan. They’re going to play that patient offense and the Ricker girl is going to take 70 percent of their shots.”

Clark was right on both counts. Shead attempted patience and Ricker, who finished the game with 25 points, took the shots. Unfortunately for the Tigerettes, Clark’s Dragons were an impatient lot.

After a quiet, uneventful first quarter in which Shead’s deliberate style kept the game close at 11-8 for Woodland, the Dragons came out in the second quarter and extended their defense. If Shead’s offense wasn’t designed to attack, Clark’s defense was.

“[Shead coach Dean Preston] recognizes what talent they have and came up with a game plan. He wanted to shorten the game up as much as he could, so we weren’t going to let him do that today. We kept pressure on the ball,” Clark said.

Woodland extended its’ 1-2-2 defense out to midcourt where Marble, freshman Kaitlyn Leeman, and guard Jessica Noyes attacked. The result was a flurry of Shead turnovers that led to Marble running the floor and converting passes from Leeman and Noyes into easy layups.

“We were flying,” Marble said.

And they were. Woodland extended its lead to 29-15 at the half and led 53-29 after three quarters.

“We wanted to control the tempo,” Preston said. “I thought we did a good job in the first quarter, but we had some turnovers in the second.”

And the third, and the fourth. In fact, Woodland forced 26 Shead turnovers. And when Shead managed to break the pressure and go to the basket, junior Julie Knights, who finished with 17 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks, and senior Kristina Huwa, who had three blocks, awaited them.

“Our height is a big advantage,” Huwa said. “Our defense is what we’re known for.”

The Dragons are also known for their scoring. Especially after an Eastern Maine tournament in which their three-game total of 210 points broke Jonesport-Beals’ 1996 tournament record of 205.

Leeman had 13 points and played flawlessly at the point for Woodland.

Dragons 74, Tigerettes 43

Shead girls (14-7) Woodland (18-3)

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

Bowen 0 0 0 0 0 Marble 12 16 10 13 34

McPhail 0 0 0 2 0 Brown 0 0 0 0

Green 3 0 0 0 0 Huwa 0 1 0 0

Smith 2 4 1 1 5 Snowman 0 0 0 0

Warren 0 0 0 0 0 Leeman 5 8 3 13

Davis 4 10 1 1 11 Smith 0 1 0 0

Stubbs 0 1 0 0 0 Troiani 0 0 0 0

Ricker 9 18 7 12 25 Lord 1 1 0 2

Beaulieu 0 1 0 0 0 Holmes 1 1 2

Mitchell 0 0 0 0 0 Noyes 3 15 6

Bouchard 0 0 2 2 2 Knights 7 10 17

Lingley 0 0 0 0 0 Vose 0 0 0 0

Woodruff 0 0 0

Newman 0 0 0 0

Totals 18 34 11 18 43 29 53 16 30 74

Shead 8 15 29 43

Woodland 11 29 53 74

3-pt. goals: Shead (2-8): Davis 2-5, Green 0-2, Ricker 0-1; Woodland (0-3): Noyes 0-2, Marble 0-1