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BANGOR – After seeing her light up the opposition for 35 points and 22 rebounds in the quarterfinals, Southern Aroostook coach Jon Porter wasn’t sure how to slow down Shelby Pickering.
Porter settled on using a matchup type of 2-3 zone defense and switching between that and man-to-man.
The strategy worked, sort of, as Pickering was “limited” to 23 points and 10 boards, but it couldn’t overcome Lee Academy’s effort on the boards and Pickering’s supporting cast as the Pandas cruised to a 63-44 Eastern Class D semifinal win over the Warriors of Dyer Brook Thursday night.
“They just killed us on the boards. We had a hard time getting rebounds and I felt that was the difference,” Porter said. “We tried to play a little zone and they started shooting from the outside. Then we went to man and we couldn’t rebound with them either way.”
The Pandas outrebounded the Warriors 49-31 and outshot them 40.7 to 28.8 percent from the floor to improve to 18-3 and advance to Saturday’s 9 a.m. regional title game against No. 1 Woodland at the Bangor Auditorium.
“Rebounds are a key for us. When we shoot, chances are good we’re going to get that second or third shot,” said Lee coach Carrie Goodhue. “Usually it’s harder out of a zone, but we were able to do well with sort of a matchup kind of zone and going to the boards hard.”
The Warriors, who finish up 17-3, kept it close until the start of the second quarter, when the Pandas ran off 14 unanswered points to take a 26-12 lead with 41/2 minutes left in the first half. Lee never led by less than 10 points from that point on.
Junior forward Kristin Hersom provided the other half of Lee’s 1-2 punch with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
“That was the best I’ve seen her rebound,” Porter said. “When you have so many weapons, it’s tough to key on certain people.
“They’re the best team in Class D. I expect them to win Eastern Maine.”
Junior forward Samantha Cole finished with nine points and seven boards for Lee while classmate and guard Ashlee Gifford had a good all-around game with six points, five rebounds, five assists, four steals, and a blocked shot.
Senior guard Nicki Lyons led the Warriors with 12 points. Junior guard-forward Olivia McGary had eight points and eight rebounds.
Sophomore guard Mindy Watson had seven points, four boards, and four assists.
Of Pickering’s 10 rebounds, eight were offensive.
“She’s a machine,” Hersom said simply about her 5-foot-10 sophomore center teammate.
Lee ran effectively and used its defense to get its transition game going, but was also able to play a good half-court game.
“I think that was the first time we’ve been able to play that in a long time,” Pickering said with a laugh. “We usually just run all the time.”
PANDAS 63, WARRIORS 44
Lee Academy (18-3) So. Aroostook (17-3)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Mallett 1 8 0 0 2 T. Hartin 1 2
Moors 0 2 1 2 1 Hardy 0 1 0
Pickering 8 12 7 9 23 Collier 0 1 0
Hanscom 2 5 1 2 6 McLaughlin 0 0
Moors 1 2 0 0 2 N. Lyons 4 15 2 3 12
Hersom 6 12 0 0 14 Clark 0 0 0
Cole 3 6 3 4 9 B. Crandall 0 2 2
Ham 0 2 0 0 0 McGary 3 10 2 8
Gifford 3 10 0 0 6 A. Crandall 0 0
Read 0 0 0 0 0 Watson 3 9 1 7
L. Lyons 0 0 0
Ryan 0 0 0 0
Charette 6 12 13
Totals 24 59 12 17 63 Totals 17 59 13 44
Lee 12 33 45 63
So. Aroostook 12 21 32 44
3-pt. goals ? Lee (3-8): Hersom 2-3, Hanscom 1-2, Ham 0-1, Gifford 0-2; SAHS (2-9): N. Lyons 2-7, McGary 0-1, Watson 0-1
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