The Lee girls basketball team went into this season as a favorite to appear in the Eastern Maine Class D championship game, but the Pandas couldn’t be considered the only contender – Woodland, the two-time defending Class D state champ had graduated two star players but still lurked as the squad to beat.

Indeed, the Dragons defeated the Pandas earlier this year, but Lee got a little revenge with a 48-35 victory in a Jan. 9 game.

“We learned a lot from [the loss],” Lee coach Carrie Goodhue said of Woodland’s 46-41 win on Dec. 30. “We’ve been working on being more relaxed, keeping our composure. At the end of the game [in Woodland] we had a good-sized lead and we choked.”

Since last Thursday, East Grand of Danforth and Mattanawcook of Lincoln have both beaten Woodland in close games.

In their first matchup against the Dragons, the Pandas tried gimmick defenses, including a box-and-1 with a defender on Woodland guard Kaitlyn Leeman and a triangle-and-2 on Leeman and 5-10 forward Katie Smith.

Goodhue changed things around for the second game.

“We just packed it in with a 2-3 zone, put a lot of pressure on Katie and tried to wear her out, so our best to double-team Kaitlyn where we could,” she said.

Lee standout sophomore Shelby Pickering had been in foul trouble in the first game; in the rematch she scored 22 points and had 22 rebounds.

“We did a really good job getting rebounds and boxing out,” Goodhue said. “They really only had one shot. … Protecting the paint was the big thing. We would have been in trouble if they were hitting from the outside, but they weren’t.”

The Pandas are now 9-2 (their only other loss was to Calais), thanks to Pickering and an athletic, experienced group of starters in Sam Cole, Kristen Hersom, Brittany Mallett and Ashlee Gifford.

Pickering is averaging about 17 points and 12 rebounds per game.

‘Role-players’ shine

With some of the best girls basketball players in the state involved in Tuesday’s matchup between Nokomis and MDI, it was the so-called role players who left a huge impression.

“We feel fortunate. I could have gone the other way,” Anderson said. “There’s a very good team and truthfully I’m glad we don’t have to play them again. Now I can root for them to keep winning.”

“Our big three came through down the stretch, but to get there I thought we had some players really come through,” Anderson said.

Senior forward Sara Lowe had a huge first half, with seven of her 12 points and seven of her 12 rebounds coming before halftime.

Sophomore Michelle Barden hit a long jumper in the second quarter that cut an MDI lead to 21-20, and two minutes later made a free throw to tie the game. And senior Gillian Snow’s two steals in the closing moments led to key free throws.

“[Lowe] played well all the way through, especially in the first half,” Anderson said. “Michelle Barden comes in, she doesn’t know she’s a first-year player and that’s why we like her. She’s out there to make plays, she doesn’t play scared or tentative. She came up with some big plays. Gill Snow, her two steals at the end were game-sealers.”

The Trojans got good efforts from Jessica Norwood and Jenna Gordius, but missed Leah Joy.

Norwood hit four 3-point baskets and has made 12 3-pointers in the last three games.

Gordius, who started Tuesday, is coming off recent surgery but looked sharp anyway. She was 4-for-8 from the floor and finished with eight points and several steals and assists in limited action.

“Jenna gave us some good minutes,” MDI coach Burt Barker said. “She didn’t have much energy and she got tired quick but she had eight points for us and played good [defense]. We were having to spot her.”

Barker, whose 10-1 Trojans use zone defenses regularly, had thoughts of playing some man-to-man but that was squelched when starting guard Leah Joy didn’t make the trip because she was sick.

“She’s our defensive stopper and I figured we couldn’t match up with them man-to-man without Leah so we didn’t go much man-to-man in the late going,” Barker said.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.