BANGOR – The Nokomis girls basketball team came to life in the fourth quarter of Thursday’s Eastern Maine Class A semifinal at the Bangor Auditorium.

Michelle Murray stuck a couple of 3-pointers. Danielle Clark rebounded with a vengeance. The Warriors made their free throws and executed their stall offense. And the defending Class A state champs rallied from a six-point halftime deficit to post a 39-30 victory over Hampden Academy.

“We talk a lot about how we have to believe in one another and good things will happen,” Nokomis coach Earl Anderson said. “I think this game was a case of that.”

Clark scored 18 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in the win, which sends Nokomis to the Eastern Maine Class A final Saturday night. The game will be a rematch of last year’s EM final as Cony of Augusta topped Skowhegan in the first semifinal Thursday.

Actually, Murray hit just one 3-pointer in the fourth quarter. Her first made shot, after an 0-for-4 start, dropped with about three-tenths of a second to spare as the third quarter came to an end. That cut Hampden’s lead to 23-20.

Bronco forward Emmy Russell (seven rebounds) drove for a basket to put HA back up by five points, but Clark converted a 3-point play to get within two points. About 30 seconds later, Murray put in a 21-footer as the Warriors went up for good.

“We weren’t hitting anything so we started penetrating, going inside-out with Danielle, and finally they started dropping,” Murray said with a smile.

Hampden stayed within one point, but Nokomis went into a spread offense, eating up whole minutes. The Broncs started to foul, and the Warriors responded. After Murray gave Nokomis the lead, the Warriors went 13-for-19 from the free-throw line.

Meanwhile, Hampden was 1-for-12 from the field in the fourth quarter and 12-for-22 from the free-throw line in the game.

“We missed a lot of layups that should have kept us in the game … we had a lot of open looks but we didn’t finish,” Hampden coach Mike Webb said. “Defensively we played well enough to win the ball game. But you’ve got to score more points.”

Clark’s fourth quarter rebounding was key. Several of her seven rebounds came after missed free throws to help Nokomis hold the ball.

“She came up with some awfully big rebounds, in traffic, contested, that she didn’t get the first time,” Anderson said.

The Broncs played tough zone defense early. The Warriors struggled to get the ball inside to Clark or forward Sara Lowe and turned the ball over trying to penetrate.

The game was knotted at 9-9 at the end of the first quarter but Hampden reeled off a 9-2 run as Bronco senior Megan Magoon scored seven of her 18 points in the stretch.

WARRIORS 39, BRONCOS 30

Hampden Academy (17-4) Nokomis girls (19-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Webb 0 1 0 0 0 Welch 1 7 1 3

Shaw 0 0 0 0 0 Murray 2 10 3 9

Caron 0 3 1 2 1 Snow 0 4 2

Magoon 6 14 6 9 18 MacKenzie 2 4

Littlefield 0 0 0 0 0 Paradis 0 0 0

Wilson 0 0 0 0 0 Perry 0 1 0

Campbell 0 0 0 0 0 Lowe 1 5 3

Martin 0 0 0 0 0 Clark 4 12 10 12 18

Russell 1 7 4 9 6

Robinson 2 6 0 0 4

Spaulding 0 0 0 0 0

Ireland 0 1 0 0 0

Hessert 0 5 0 0 0

McBee 0 1 0 0 0

Bragg 0 2 1 2 1

Totals 9 40 12 22 30 10 44 17 25 39

Hampden 9 18 23 30

Nokomis 9 12 20 39

3-pt. goals: Hampden (0-3): Magoon 0-3; Hampden (2-13): Murray 2-7, Snow 0-1, MacKenzie 0-1, Clark 0-1, Welch 0-3