BANGOR – The Dexter girls basketball team didn’t get much going on the perimeter during Friday night’s Eastern Maine Class C semifinal against Hodgdon, but with two post players towering over the rest of the players on the court, the No. 1 Tigers didn’t need many big jumpers.

Ashley Ames, a 6-foot-3 sophomore, scored 25 points, including 18 in the first half, and 6-foot senior Ashley Foster added 14 more, to lead Dexter to a 62-25 victory over No. 4 Hodgdon at the Bangor Auditorium.

The 20-0 Tigers will face No. 3 Calais, which defeated No. 2 Central of Corinth in an afternoon semi, for the EM Class C crown Saturday at 7:05 p.m. Hodgdon wraps up its season at 14-6.

The Hawks didn’t have a player listed at taller than 5-foot-7. Dexter made the most of the mismatches.

“Since they were so short, the plan was that it would be so easy to get it into the big girls,” Ames said. “That was the plan, unless [outside shooters] were wide open out there, then they were free to shoot it.”

Ames scored five of Dexter’s first six baskets – Foster had the other – as the Tigers jumped out to a quick 12-3 lead with 3:31 left in the first quarter. She was 6-for-8 from the floor in the opening period.

The Hawks had a chance to regain some momentum when Chelsea Wilson drained a 3-pointer to make it 14-6, but Dexter reeled off three straight scores – Ames put back a rebound, Keriann Patterson hit the Tigers’ only 3-pointer of the game, and Brittany Veazie made a jump shot off a pass from Amanda Pullen – for a 21-6 lead at the end of the first period.

“It pumps you up, gets you going,” Ames said of Dexter’s big early lead. “It takes away the nerves a little bit.”

Veazie, one of the Tigers’ better defenders, guarded Hodgdon’s Jamie Nightingale, a dangerous shooter who had 10 points in the Hawks’ quarterfinal win, but didn’t score Friday.

The Tigers’ first-half offensive numbers were impressive: 16-for-30 from the field, 11 of 16 baskets off assists, 6-for-6 from the free-throw line.

Ames made eight of her first 10 shots and Ashley Foster was 3-for-5.

“We knew it was going to be a strong inside-out game,” Hodgdon coach Wendy Ivey said. “… Ames just couldn’t miss the first half.”

Dexter’s tough man-to-man defense and press forced 12 first-half turnovers. The Tigers committed just four.

Ames finished with 10 rebounds, five blocks and three steals. Foster had seven rebounds and four assists, all of which went to Ames. Veazie scored six points to go with four steals.

Dexter freshman Sabrina Cote came off the bench and scored four points, grabbed five rebounds, handed out four assists and had three steals.

Shanna McGary paced the Hawks with eight points. Erin Foster finished with seven points and a team-high nine rebounds.

TIGERS 62, HAWKS 25

Hodgdon (14-6) Dexter (20-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

C. Sloat 0 4 0 0 0 Veazie 2 8 6

Williams 0 0 0 0 0 Chapman 1 1 2

A. Sloat 1 4 0 0 2 Mountain 0 0

McGary 4 8 0 0 8 Burton 0 0 0

K. Sloat 0 2 0 2 0 Fogarty 0 0 0

Blanchette 0 0 0 0 0 Cote 2 6 4

D. Fitzpatrick 0 0 2 2 2 S. Turner 0

A. Fitzpatrick 1 7 0 0 3 Hartford 2

Foster 3 10 1 2 7 Alton 1 1 2

Nightingale 0 9 0 0 0 Pullen 0 4 0

Wilson 1 4 0 0 3 L. Turner 1 2

Foster 5 9 4 14

Ames 11 14 3 25

Patterson 2 7 5

Totals 10 48 3 6 25 26 54 13 62

Hodgdon 6 13 19 25

Dexter 21 39 48 62

3-pt. goals ? Hodgdon (2-8): Wilson 1-3, A. Fitzpatrick 1-2, C. Sloat 0-1, Nightingale 0-2; Dexter (1-2): Patterson 1-1, Veazie 0-1