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BANGOR – With less than five minutes left in Monday night’s Eastern Maine Class A girls final game, sophomore Danielle Clark stood in the middle of the court and signaled her Nokomis of Newport teammates to settle down.
To not get caught up in the fast pace of the opposition. To stay in the basketball game. To remember that the neophyte Warriors had an eight-point lead over tourney-tested Cony.
When it came time for celebration, the 6-foot Clark was the first to let loose. Her tears came just seconds after the buzzer sounded and No. 2 Nokomis had knocked off the No. 1 Rams of Augusta 55-43.
Clark pumped in a game-high 26 points to lead the Warriors to the school’s first regional basketball championship. The game was a matchup of undefeated teams with identical 20-0 records.
“This is so amazing,” Clark said. “It’s not what I thought it was going to be. I’m calming down right now, but I was out of control crying. It’s the first one ever for us.”
Coach Earl Anderson’s Nokomis squad (21-0) will face Western Maine champion Catherine McAuley of Portland (20-1) for the Class A state championship Satuday at 7:10 p.m. at the Bangor Auditorium.
Cony (20-1) was playing for its seventh EM title.
The Warriors led much of a back-and-forth first half but the Rams took a six-point lead at halftime.
But just 16 seconds into the second half, things turned the Warriors’ way. Cony guard Lindsay Frye went to the bench with her third foul, and in the midst of a 9-3 Nokomis run, Ram forward Amelia Clukey was called for her third foul as well.
The Warriors took advantage and regained the lead by converting free throws. Clark made a free throw to tie the game at 26-26 with 4:38 left in the third quarter. Ram Karen Sirois (20 points) hit two free throws but Clark scored inside to knot the game again.
Michelle Murray’s free-throw line jumper with 2:52 left made it 30-28 for the Warriors, and they never trailed again. Six-foot Cony center Jauna Andrews also sat down with her third foul in the third quarter.
Nokomis got into the bonus free-throw situation with 2:05 left in the third (the call was followed immediately by a technical on Cony coach Paul Vachon). The Warriors made three of their four shots.
The Rams weren’t finished – Sirois hit 3-pointers on two straight Cony possessions to get within one point. But Nokomis made 14 of its 19 free-throw tries from there to seal it.
The Rams played their trademark full-court press and man defense. Cony has beaten plenty of teams because it could force and convert turnovers, but the Warriors never got rattled. And just as Clark wanted late in the game, Nokomis stayed calm and made free throws.
“When you hold Cony to 43 points you deserve to go on,” said Vachon, whose Rams had scored 87 points in a semifinal against Hampden. “[Nokomis is] going to do well. They have great ball-handlers, they’re young, and they did a great job against our press.”
Clark said knowing the Rams played a tough man defense, the Warriors spent time in practice last week on their press-breaker.
“We needed to slow it down, because they’re up-tempo, and if they got going they were going to keep going,” Clark said. “We had to have our guards calm down and bring up the ball.”
The Warriors outrebounded the Rams 27-25 and got a well-rounded effort in that department. Clark grabbed six rebounds, while Lindsey Welch, Laura Pelkey, Sara Lowe and Gillian Snow each had four.
Welch, one of four sophomore starters, chipped in with 11 points (including a 7-for-10 effort from the free-throw line), and sophomore Michelle Murray had nine points and four assists.
Clukey added 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds for Cony. Sirois went hit four of six attempts from 3-point range.
Warriors 55, Rams 43
Nokomis (21-0) Cony (20-1)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Welch 2 8 7 10 11 Underwood 2 8
Pelkey 1 4 5 6 7 Frye 0 5 0
Murray 3 8 2 3 9 Dumont 0 0 0
Palmer 0 0 0 0 0 Jackson 1 5 0
Snow 0 1 2 4 2 Whitlock 0 0 0
Lowe 0 2 0 0 0 Nickerson 0 2 0
Clark 8 11 10 12 26 Clukey 4 8 11
Sirois 4 10 4 20
Andrews 1 5 2 4
Totals 14 34 26 35 55 Totals 12 43 12 14 43
Nokomis 11 17 36 55
Cony 11 23 34 43
3-pt. goals ? Nokomis (1-8): Welch 0-2, Pelkey 0-2, Murray 1-4; Cony (5-14): Underwood 1-3, Frye 0-5, Nickerson 0-1, Sirois 4-6
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