Sophomore Clark at head of hoop class Forward leads Warriors to first girls title, earns NEWS All-Tourney MVP honors

Nokomis of Newport forward Danielle Clark showed plenty of promise last year as a freshman. This year, after a stellar regular season during which she led the Big East Conference in scoring, Clark delivered in the tournament as well.

Clark led the Warriors to the school’s first Eastern Maine basketball championship last Saturday with a win over perennial power Cony of Augusta with a performance that made her a unanimous pick for the 2001 Bangor Daily News’ Owen Osborne Most Valuable Player Award for the Eastern Maine Class A tournament.

Clark, who had EM final game-highs of 26 points, six rebounds and two blocks for the Warriors, is the first sophomore to be named MVP in Class A.

Clark’s teammate Laura Pelkey was made the Eastern Maine Class A All-Tournament team. Cony’s Ashley Underwood and Amelia Clukey, along with Messalonskee of Oakland’s Elizabeth Smith, also earned all-tourney honors.

The MVP award was established in 1994 in memory of Osborne, a former NEWS sports editor and reporter. The winner and the all-tourney team are selected by a vote of media, tournament personnel and representatives of the Maine Principals’ Association.

Clark poured in 65 points, the most of any Eastern Maine Class A player, and averaged a tourney-best 21.6 points per game. She scored 31 in the quarterfinal and 26 in the final. She averaged 6.3 rebounds per game.

Clark also established a new tournament record with her 27-for-32 (84.3 percent) effort from the free-throw line over the course of three games. She broke the old record of 25 made free throws previously held by Cony’s Marcie Lane (set in 1987) and Lawrence of Fairfield’s Cindy Blodgett (1993).

Pelkey, the only senior starter for Nokomis and one of just two seniors on the team, averaged eight points per game and five rebounds per game. Like Clark, Pelkey is also a solid free-throw shooter, and the 5-10 forward went 9-for-10 over the course of the tournament (four of those came in a key third-quarter stretch of the EM final).

Cony’s well-rounded scoring and defensive play gave voters fits when it came time to pick the Rams’ top players, but Clukey and Underwood emerged from the pack.

Underwood, a sophomore guard, led Cony with 14 points per game. She also averaged three assists and led the Rams with 22 points in their semifinal win, and went 6-for-9 from 3-point range in her three games.

Clukey, a 5-8 senior, averaged 11 points and 8.3 rebounds in three games. She scored 16 points in the semifinal.

Messalonskee’s Smith averaged nine points in two games, but made the shot of the tourney when she hit a six-footer from the baseline with eight-tenths of a second remaining to lift the No. 6 Eagles past No. 3 Bangor 36-34 in the quarterfinals. The 5-11 senior forward also averaged 10 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game, and had five blocks in the quarterfinal win.

NEWS All-Tournament Team

Eastern Maine Class A Girls

Danielle Clark***, Nokomis, 6-0 forward, sophomore; Laura Pelkey, Nokomis, 5-10 forward, senior; Amelia Clukey, Cony, 5-8 center-forward, senior; Ashley Underwood, Cony, 5-7 guard, sophomore; Izzy Smith, Messalonskee, 5-11 guard-forward, senior

Honorable mention: Lindsey Welch, Nokomis; Karen Sirois, Cony; Jamie Wells, Hampden; Alison Smith, Bangor

*** Owen Osborne Most Valuable Player winner