GUILFORD – When things click for the Dexter girls basketball team, the Tigers seem unstoppable. And with Dexter’s two 6-footers patrolling the post, the undefeated squad handled Piscataquis in Thursday night’s Eastern Maine Class C matchup at the high school gym here.

Dexter scored 21 unanswered points – 12 of which came from 6-foot forward Ashley Foster – in the first quarter against the Pirates and allowed just nine in the first half en route to a 65-28 victory.

Piscataquis came out in a 2-3 zone defense to clog up the middle, but it didn’t bother Dexter’s post players. Foster was 7-for-8 from the field and 6-for-6 from the free-throw line. She made all five of her first-quarter field-goal attempts. Meanwhile, 6-3 center Ashley Ames scored 19 points and was 8-for-14 from the floor overall.

The Tigers, now 15-0, have a stellar combination of strong inside play and the ability to run. That led to a 47-29 rebounding edge for Dexter, 16 Piscataquis turnovers in the first half, and not much time for the Pirates to get their defense in place.

“When we run the ball it’s so much easier,” Foster said. “It doesn’t give them time to set the zones up and that’s what we do. When we have guards that can run we can use them.”

Foster finished with 10 rebounds and Ames had eight.

All but one of Dexter’s starters sat for the fourth quarter, and the Tigers’ bench players responded to the playing time. Amanda Pullen had eight points and nine rebounds, while Meagan Fogarty scored eight points and had six boards.

Dexter started out in a full-court zone and then went to man, and held Piscataquis scoreless until Karoleanne Emery put in a free throw about a minute into the second quarter. The Pirates didn’t make a field goal until Pam Bailey’s 3-pointer with about two seconds left in the first half. PCHS took 19 field-goal attempts in the half.

“When we play man teams usually don’t get off too many shots on us,” Dexter coach Margaret Veazie said.

Veazie used a 40-9 halftime lead to allow her team to concentrate on some weak spots in the second half.

“We play so much man-to-man that we’re predictable,” she said. “We want to throw in some zone but when we do that we don’t box out well. So we were trying to work on that in the second half.”

The Pirates got into a little bit of a groove in the third quarter as Kristi Levesque and Emery each drained a 3-pointer and Lacie Hanscome put in a basket, but the Tigers still had a 32-point lead.

Hanscome, Emery and Bailey each scored six points for Piscataquis.

Dexter point guard Brittany Veazie started the game but sat for much of it because of illness.

TIGERS 65, PIRATES 28

Dexter (15-0) Piscataquis (3-11)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Veazie 1 4 2 2 4 Zajechwski 0 0

Chapman 0 2 0 0 0 Woodbury 1 2

Mountain 0 1 0 0 0 Levesque 1 3

Burton 0 0 0 1 0 Bailey 2 9 6

Fogarty 4 6 0 6 8 St. Louis 0 0

Cote 1 8 0 0 2 Getchell 0 8 0

S. Turner 1 4 0 0 2 Roy 0 1 0

Alton 0 2 0 0 0 C. Martell 0 0

Pullen 3 7 2 3 8 Emery 1 6 6

Patterson 0 2 2 2 2 H. Martell 0 0

L. Turner 0 3 0 0 0 Hanscome 3 6

Foster 7 8 6 6 20 Bradford 1 5

Ames 8 14 3 6 19

Totals 25 61 15 26 65 Totals 9 48 15 28

Dexter 21 40 55 65

Piscataquis 0 9 19 28

3-pt. goals: Dexter (0-0); Piscataquis (4-8): Bailey 2-4, Levesque 1-1, Emery 1-1, Getchell 0-2

Attendance: 200 (est.)

Preliminary: Dexter JVs 62-15