Skowhegan utilizes 3-pointers to defeat Mt. Blue Jones, Davis set tone for Indians

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BANGOR – Skowhegan’s Tiffany Jones sometimes gets a feeling. Most of the time when it occurs, it’s bad for the opposition.

Friday afternoon at the Bangor Auditorium the senior guard had that feeling and began filling the air with 3-pointers. In the end she had connected on four of six from beyond the line, scored 20 points and led Skowhegan to a 53-35 Eastern Maine Class A tournament quarterfinal win over Mt. Blue.

The Indians improved to 19-1 on the season and will play the winner of this morning’s game between Bangor and Cony Thursday night at 7:10 in the semifinals.

“I’m a streaky shooter. But when I started shooting them I started feeling it. I definitely like taking them,” Jones said.

As does teammate Sarah Davis, who nailed three of four 3-point attempts and finished the game with 11 points. All in all, the Indians attempted 16 3-pointers.

“We shoot a lot of them,” Skowhegan coach Paul True said. “We have a lot of kids that have that kind of range. Some nights they’re going to fall, other nights they won’t. Tonight a lot of them did.”

Equally important for the Indians was their success early in the game rebounding, particularly on the offensive end, while limiting the Cougars from Farmington to just one shot at the other.

“That’s really been our nemesis all year long,” True said. “When we’ve struggled it’s been on the backboards and we’ve really focused on that in practice. No second shots [for Mt. Blue]. That’s the key.”

Mt. Blue, meanwhile, struggled at all aspects of the game. The Indians’ pressure defense forced the Cougars into taking awkward, off-balance shots and into turning the ball over. Mt. Blue finished the game with 23 turnovers, 10 in the critical third quarter when the Cougars were still within striking distance.

Additionally, the Indians converted 18 of 28 free throw attempts while Mt. Blue only went to the line six times, making two.

“The foul line situation killed us as it has in a lot of games,” Mt. Blue coach Jeannine Beaulieu said. “We know that we need to keep teams off the foul lines. When we got to the line we didn’t capitalize.”

Senior Rachel Yates had eight points and grabbed nine rebounds and Amy Baxter also had eight points for 8-12 Mt. Blue.

INDIANS 53, COUGARS 35

Mt. Blue girls (8-12) Skowhegan (19-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Yates 3 12 1 2 8 Gibson 1 2 2

Delaney 0 0 0 0 0 Albert 0 1 0

Harrell 1 4 0 0 2 Berry 1 1 3

Carleton 1 2 0 0 3 Brown 0 0 0

Drosdik 3 6 0 0 7 West 0 1 0

Merchant 0 0 0 0 0 Sylvain 0 1 0

Baxter 3 6 0 2 8 Smith 0 0 1

Davis 1 5 0 0 2 Searles 1 3 4

Keene 0 1 0 0 0 Ballard 3 5 7

Buchheit 0 1 0 0 0 McDaniel 0 2

Groder 0 1 0 0 0 Davis 3 7 11

Hastings 2 7 1 2 5 Surovikova 0 0

Hilton 0 4 2 2

Berry 0 2 1 1

Jones 5 12 6 20

Totals 14 45 2 6 35 Totals 14 44 18 28 53

Mt. Blue 7 18 24 35

Skowhegan 13 29 48 53

3-pt. goals: Mt. Blue (5-13) Baxter 2-4, Yates 1-4, Drosdik 1-1, Buchheit 0-1, Groder 0-1, Hastings 0-1, Carleton 1-1; Skowhegan (7-16) Jones 4-6, Davis 3-4, Searles 0-2, Albert 0-1, Hilton 0-1, McDaniel 0-1, West 0-1