Woodland rolls by Shead Dragons use depth, gain berth in Saturday final

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BANGOR – The Woodland girls hadn’t even finished the first quarter of Thursday afternoon’s Eastern Class D semifinal tilt with Shead of Eastport before they were dealt a serious setback.

Despite a 12-5 lead, the Dragons watched in frustration as one of their leading scorers, junior forward Katie Smith, went to the bench with three fouls. Almost 41/2 minutes later, another starter – forward Lauren Troiani – was whistled for her third and Woodland’s 11th foul of the first half.

Rather than fade with two starters and big scorers on the bench, the Dragons maintained and then actually widened their lead a bit via solid shooting, aggressive rebounding, and stingy man-to-man defense en route to an impressive 54-37 victory at the Bangor Auditorium.

“It’s been a problem all year, but we fight through it,” said junior guard Kaitlyn Leeman, who led the 16-5 Dragons with 17 points and five assists.

Top seed Woodland will play the winner of Thursday night’s Southern Aroostook-Lee Academy game for the regional championship Saturday at 9 a.m. The No. 4 Tigers wind their season up 15-6.

“Getting down 11-2 right at the beginning was tough,” said Shead coach Bob Davis. “They’re a good defensive team and they didn’t give us a lot of good looks.”

Davis also pointed to Woodland’s 18-15 edge on the offensive boards and 36-31 advantage overall as another reason the Dragons not only overcame foul trouble, but never trailed in the game.

Smith returned early in the third quarter with Woodland ahead by nine and finished with six points, five boards, two assists and a block. Troiani had seven points.

Junior guard Megan Lord took up some of the scoring slack by scoring 11 points, but also grabbed five rebounds and made two assists.

“If we get help when other teams try to stop Leeman and Smith, the other teams are in trouble,” said Dragons coach Arnold Clark. “When we don’t, we struggle.”

Woodland didn’t struggle much, shooting 42 percent from the floor while holding Shead to 23.3 percent.

Shead made a run at Woodland midway through the third quarter with a Vanessa McPhail hoop and a Samantha Davis 3-pointer. The shots made It 27-23 Woodland, but the Dragons responded with a 12-1 run fueled by Davis, Leeman, and Lord to provide more breathing room

“Toward the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth, you could see Shead putting their heads down and that really helped our momentum,” Leeman said.

Senior forward Kristen Beaulieu led Shead with 11 points. Apryl Stubbs and Skylar Richardson each grabbed seven rebounds.

Woodland committed 16 turnovers to Shead’s 11.

DRAGONS 54, TIGERS 37

Shead girls (15-6) Woodland (16-5)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Cox 0 1 0 0 0 Kochndrfer 0 1 0

McPhail 3 7 2 2 8 Brown 2 4 5

Pottle 0 0 0 0 0 Gillespie 0 0

Richardson 1 7 1 2 3 Murphy 0 0 0

Bowen 0 3 0 0 0 Snowman 0 2 1

Bouchard 0 1 0 0 0 Leeman 7 13 17

Cummings 1 1 0 0 2 Ferry 0 3 0

Davis 2 10 4 6 9 Lord 4 6 11

Stubbs 0 5 0 2 0 Holmes 1 3 2

Constant 0 0 3 4 3 Troiani 3 6 7

Beaulieu 3 6 5 12 11 Smith 3 6 6

Cook 0 0 1 2 1 Knights 1 5 0 2

Martinez 0 1 0 0 0 Seavey 0 0 2

Ricker 0 1 0 0 0 Vose 0 1 1

Totals 10 43 16 30 37 21 50 16 54

Shead 5 15 26 37

Woodland 12 25 41 54

3-pt. goals ? Shead (1-4): Davis 1-3, McPhail 0-1; Woodland (3-6): Lord 1-1, Brown 1-2, Leeman 1-3