‘D’ propels Van Buren past Shead Corbin tosses in 32

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BANGOR – Van Buren doesn’t have a lot of depth this season, so coach Steve Lapierre plays a fair amount of zone defense.

When the Crusaders needed a lift Saturday night, a switch to man-to-man provided the impetus Van Buren needed to post a 61-49 Eastern Maine Class D schoolgirl quarterfinal basketball victory over Shead of Eastport at the Bangor Auditorium.

Van Buren outscored Shead 16-1 during the first 61/2 minutes of the third quarter, building a 15-point lead that eventually held up.

The 16-3 Crusaders advance to Thursday’s 2:05 p.m. semifinal against Monday’s Woodland-Southern Aroostook winner. Shead bows out at 11-9.

“Coach switched us from playing a zone defense to a man-to-man,” said Van Buren’s lone senior, Nicole Corbin, who connected for a team-high 32 points.

“We seem to get more pumped up when we play man-to-man defense, so I think that helped us out quite a bit,” she added.

Corbin scored 12 points during the Crusaders’ pivotal run. She converted a blocked shot with a layup at the other end, then sandwiched two free throws and a 3-pointer around Andrea Doucette’s 10-footer from the baseline.

Danielle Gagnon followed with a short turnaround jumper, Shead’s Samantha Davis countered with a foul shot, then Corbin made a free throw and two layups to make it 47-32 with 37 seconds left in the third.

“In our big games that we’ve been behind, we’ve switched to man-to-man and it’s kind of picked up our tempo and we’ve been able to hold teams down a little bit,” Lapierre said.

The Tigerettes scored the next nine points to cut the deficit to six early in the fourth, but Tasha Gagnon hit a long jumper and Michelle Parent scored two straight hoops as Van Buren extended the lead.

Corbin scored 16 points in each half for the winners, while the 6-foot-1 Parent owned the paint with 14 points, 17 rebounds and seven blocked shots.

The determined Davis, a sophomore guard, netted a game-high 31 points for Shead. Kristen Beaulieu added five points and 11 rebounds.

CRUSADERS 61, TIGERETTES 49

Shead (11-9) Van Buren (16-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Preston 1 3 0 0 2 T. Gagnon 2 4

Davis 10 31 7 10 33 Corbin 9 14 13 21 32

Beaulieu 1 12 3 6 5 Parent 6 9 14

Mitchell 0 2 0 0 0 Doucette 1 2

Lingley 0 3 0 0 0 Gagnon 3 9 6

McPhail 0 0 0 0 0 Hews 0 2 1

Richardson 1 2 0 0 2 Caron 1 2 2

Bowen 2 5 0 1 4

N. Bouchard 1 1 1 1 3

Totals 16 59 11 18 49 Totals 22 42 16 33 61

Shead 7 31 37 49

Van Buren 15 31 47 61

3-pt. goals ? Shead (6-16): Davis 6-15, Lingley 0-1; Van Buren (1-2): T. Gagnon 0-1, Corbin 1-1