Calais, Central advance to semi Martin, Ahearn spark winners

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BANGOR – Bob McShane’s Calais girls headed to Bangor in an unfamiliar role: The Blue Devils, winners of six of the last seven Eastern Maine championships, were a No. 3 seed.

And after three quarters Tuesday, Calais found itself down by four to Mattanawcook of Lincoln.

In the fourth, a new crop of Calais players did the same thing Calais players have been doing for more than a decade: They hunkered down, ratcheted up the defensive full-court pressure a little, and topped Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln 43-35.

Calais takes on No. 2 Central of Corinth, a 59-51 winner over No. 7 Stearns of Millinocket in Tuesday’s afternoon game, in Friday’s 2:05 p.m. semifinal

In the morning session, Calais forced seven turnovers in the first four minutes of the fourth and opened the period with a 9-0 spurt to take command.

“What we weren’t doing was the point guard wasn’t going over the top of it,” MA coach Terri Thornton said.

Senior Crystal Martin was a catalyst in the run, as she flipped in a running hook shot to open the scoring, fed sophomore sniper Danielle Feck for an open 3-pointer on the next possession to make it 34-33, then hit two free throws to make it 36-33 with 6:15 to go.

MA never led again, and the Blue Devils earned their 16th straight EM semifinal berth.

Martin said the youthful Blue Devils have been resilient all year long.

“A majority of the games that we’ve won, we’ve been down at some point in the game, and when we’re, our team just picks it up,” Martin said. “That’s exactly what happened when we went down by four or five points. Sparks under the butt and we played better than we normally do.”

Martin finished with 16 points and six assists, while Feck nailed three 3-pointers en route to 12. Sophomore center Danielle O’Brien scored just two points but ripped down 10 rebounds and made the defensive play of the game when she blocked a Codi Slike shot with 1:45 to play and the Devils clinging to a 38-35 lead.

Slike finished with 18 points for the Lynx while Kate Head contributed eight points and 11 rebounds. Courtney Gulesian added 10 rebounds and Ali Keegan grabbed eight more.

In the afternoon contest, Katie Ahearn was in the minority for Central. As the Red Devils’ only senior regular, the 5-foot-10 forward is called upon to help provide leadership and poise on the basketball court.

Ahearn scored 10 of her 17 points and grabbed nine of her game-high 15 rebounds in the second half to help second-seeded Central (17-2) weather a gritty comeback try by Stearns and hold on for the victory.

Coach Diane Rollins has a freshman and two sophomores in her starting lineup and uses other underclassmen regularly. Most have tournament experience as Central reached the EM semifinals last season.

“It helped a lot, actually,” Ahearn said of that experience. “We were still really nervous because we’re pretty young, but really mature and with really good knowledge for being so young.”

Stearns, which struggled at the foul line and traded turnovers with the Red Devils throughout the first half, made a challenge late in the third quarter. Sparked by sophomore Trisha MacDonald, the Minutemen (14-6) crept within seven at 42-35 with 1:09 left in the third.

However, Ahearn scored eight of her team’s next 10 points to spark a 10-2 scoring run that made the difference.

“It got real interesting. We kind of let them back in a little bit,” Rollins said. “I have two freshmen out there with my two sophomores and a senior at times and they just haven’t had the experience, but they pulled through.”

Sophomore Jenny Rollins tossed in a game-high 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds for Central.

MacDonald led Stearns with 15 points and six rebounds. She also played exceptional defense, making six steals.

Leslie Osborne provided nine points, eight rebounds and three steals, while freshman Dayna Somers scored nine points.

Stearns had trouble overcoming 10 missed free throws and 16 turnovers in the first half. Plus, seniors Ashley Boynton and Jordan Legassey were plagued by foul trouble.

The Minutemen received strong contributions from frosh Somers and Hilary Arsenault, along with sophomore Johnna Michaud.

“They played real well for us,” said Stearns coach Greg Friel. “That was real encouraging.”

BLUE DEVILS 43, LYNX 35

Mattanawcook (12-8) Calais (14-5)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Cousineau 0 4 0 0 0 Smith 1 3 3

Littlefield 0 3 0 0 0 Martin 3 12 10 16

C. Gulesian 1 7 3 4 5 Eagan 2 5 8

Reed 0 3 0 0 0 O’Brien 1 9 0 2

Slike 7 14 0 0 18 Feck 4 15 12

Keegan 1 5 2 5 4 Taylor 0 3 0

Head 4 7 0 2 8 McGinley 0 1 0

Mahan 1 4 0 2

Gillespie 0 0 0

Totals 13 43 5 11 35 Totals 12 52 13 18 43

Mattanawcook 11 21 33 35

Calais 13 24 29 43

3-pt. goals: Mattanawcook (4-9): Littlefield 0-1, C. Gulesian 0-1, Slike 4-7; Calais (6-21): Smith 1-2, Martin 1-3, Eagan 1-3, Feck 3-12, Taylor 0

RED DEVILS 59, MINUTEMEN 51

Stearns (14-6) Central (17-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

MacDonald 5 11 4 9 15 Collins 0 2 0

Nason 0 1 1 2 1 Davis 1 9 3

Legassey 2 6 0 0 4 Rollins 9 18 24

Boynton 0 4 0 2 0 Underhill 3 8

L. Osborne 4 11 1 4 9 Ahearn 4 13 10 17

Fitzgerald 0 0 0 0 0 Elliott 2 3 5

J. Osborne 0 0 3 4 3 Daniel 1 3 2

Arsenault 1 4 0 0 3 Bell 0 0 0

Somers 3 6 1 2 9 Lyford 0 0 0

Michaud 1 2 4 4 7 Libby 0 0 0

Totals 16 45 14 27 51 Totals 20 53 18 31 59

Stearns 11 21 35 51

Central 15 31 44 59

3-pt. goals: Stearns (5-11): MacDonald 1-2, Legassey 0-1, Arsenault 1-2, L. Osborne 0-1, Somers 2-4, Michaud 1-1; Central (1-5): Davis 0-2, Rollins 1-3