Caribou Vikings knock off second seed Camden Hills Lauren Harrigan spearheads key third-quarter surge

loading...

BANGOR – Jessica Cyr can tell you exactly when she figured out that her Caribou Vikings could compete against a Camden Hills squad that entered the Eastern Maine basketball tourney with a gaudy 17-2 record.

“At halftime, I was like, ‘Geez, we’ve got a chance,'” Cyr said after the Vikings had posted a 59-46 Class B quarterfinal victory. “But I didn’t think, ‘Oh my God, we’re gonna win.'”

Not then. But eventually? You bet.

“Halfway through the fourth quarter, I’m like, ‘We’ve got this in the bag, baby,'” Cyr said. “I remember, Lindsay [Burlock] made her two foul shots, and I said, ‘Warm up the bus, baby,’ and I gave her five.”

The Vikings earned a date in the semifinals with Mount Desert Island, which defeated Belfast 45-31 in another Saturday quarterfinal. The two teams face each other Wednesday at 7:05 p.m.

The Vikings stuck close to Camden Hills in the first half and led 20-18 at the break. Then, after spending the entire warmup period in the locker room, they broke the game wide-open.

The catalyst was sophomore Lauren Harrigan, who opened the third quarter by scoring seven straight points – on two free throws, a 3-pointer and a 16-foot jumper – in the first 1:08 of play and giving Caribou a 27-18 lead. Camden Hills never got closer than four again.

“I’m just really pumped,” Harrigan said. “I was so excited, and the first half was just getting the jitters out. But in the second half, I came out and I was ready to play.”

Harrigan finished with 15 points and two blocks, while Cyr added 16 points and six assists. Leah Drew added 11 points and Monica Selander contributed five points, eight rebounds and two blocks.

Cyr is a senior, but Harrigan is a sophomore, Selander is a freshman and Drew a junior.

Camden Hills was led by Lauren Withey, who scored 19 points.

Caribou coach Jeff Jose said that even he was a bit concerned facing the powerful Windjammers.

“I had my doubts, because we were hurting, for one thing,” he said, pointing out that depth has never been a strong suit for the Vikes. Amy Bouchard started despite turning an ankle two days before, and Jenna Vincent is out with a knee injury.

But Harrigan’s effort certainly helped.

“I’ve told Lauren all year long that when she comes to play, we’re a different team,” Jose said.

In Saturday’s other Class B quarterfinal, MDI coach Burt Barker put the knowledge he gleaned from a scouting trip to good use as the Trojans picked the Lions apart early and rolled to a 45-31 win.

“I saw that they play a lot of overplay man-to-man, and I called some backdoor stuff from the get-go, hoping to jump out to a lead.”

It worked.

The No. 1 Trojans back-doored the No. 4 Lions to death while ripping out to a 25-6 lead and cruised to the victory.

The Trojans scored their first hoop of the game on a backdoor cut and scored twice more in the period by doing the same thing while improving to 19-1. Belfast finishes 11-9. They finished with five backdoor layups, and missed a couple other shots off similar cuts.

MDI was led by junior guard/forward Shelley Gott, who contributed 18 points and seven rebounds, and by the 6-foot-1 Barker, who scored 12, grabbed six rebounds, blocked five shots and handed out five assists.

Katelyn Ross scored 10 and Joanna Mehuren added nine for the Lions.

MDI took a 25-10 lead into intermission and never allowed the Lions to get closer than nine after that.

VIKINGS 59, WINDJAMMERS 46

Caribou girls (10-10) Camden Hills (17-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Bouchard 0 1 3 4 3 Dailey 3 7 12

Harrigan 5 6 2 4 15 Ford 0 0 0

Ouellette 0 0 0 0 0 Rokes 0 0 0

Cyr 4 14 6 8 16 Sommo 3 4 0 6

Burlock 3 4 3 4 9 Orhon 0 0 0

Drew 5 8 1 5 11 Croce 2 6 0 5

Selander 1 4 3 4 5 Withey 8 22 19

Walker 0 0 0 0 0 Laite 0 0 2

Carleton 0 0 0

Blanchard 1 14 2

Willey 0 0 0 0

McIntyre 0 2 0

Hoffman 0 1 0 0

Totals 18 37 18 29 59 Totals 17 56 10 19 46

Caribou 9 20 42 59

Camden Hills 6 18 31 46

3-pt. goals: Caribou (5-8): Harrigan 3-4, Cyr 2-3, Drew 0-1; Camden Hills (2-14): Dailey 0-2, Croce 1-2, Withey 1-6, Blanchard 0-4

TROJANS 45, LIONS 31

Belfast girls (11-9) 31 MDI (19-1) 45

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Crandall 0 3 0 0 0 Gordius 0 2 1

Evans 0 0 0 0 0 Joy 2 2 4

A. Bryant 0 8 0 0 0 Horton 1 4 3

L. Bryant 2 3 0 0 4 Joseph 0 0 0

Groening 0 0 0 0 0 Willson 0 1 0

Brown 0 3 2 4 2 Gott 6 16 18

Duval 0 0 0 0 0 Barker 5 15 12

Ross 5 11 0 0 10 Kane 2 9 3 7

Murphy 2 8 0 2 4 Norwood 0 0 0

Ellis 0 1 0 0 0

Bailey 1 4 0 0 2

Mehuren 4 10 1 3 9

Nickerson 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 14 51 3 9 31 Totals 16 49 10 17 45

Belfast 4 10 22 31

MDI 16 25 33 45

3-pt. goals: Belfast (0-10): A. Bryant 0-5, Ross 0-4, Mehuren 0-1; MDI (3-14): Horton 1-2, Gott 2-6, Barker 0-5, Kane 0-1