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BANGOR – Offense hasn’t come easily for the Calais girls basketball team this year, but solid shooting in Friday afternoon’s Eastern Maine Class C semifinal boosted the No. 3 Blue Devils over No. 2 Central of Corinth at the Bangor Auditorium.
Danielle Feck scored 20 points, Crystal Martin chipped in with 19, and Calais scored 13 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to post a 67-57 victory over the Red Devils.
The Blue Devils, now 15-5, head to their 11th straight Eastern Maine Class C final game. The defending regional champions will face the winner of Friday night’s game between No. 1 Dexter and No. 4 Hodgdon.
Playing as the away team in a tournament game for the first time since 1995, according to coach Bob McShane, the Blue Devils rallied from a 48-46 Central lead at the end of the third quarter. Calais was 5-for-8 from the floor in the fourth and 22-for-43 (51.1 percent) overall.
“We scored baskets and that’s rare for us,” McShane said. “Our offense came through for a change … to score 67 points is so unlike us.”
Calais’ Sarah Mahan kicked off the final period with a put-back to tie the game. Tracie Eagan (14 points) made two straight baskets, then Martin scored twice and made three of four free throws for a 59-48 lead.
Central’s Casey Davis knocked down a 3-pointer from the right side with 2:21 left, but Danielle O’Brien scored off a long transition pass and the Blue Devils made six free throws in the final two minutes.
“We started to run our plays, thinking about what we were doing,” said sophomore O’Brien, who finished with eight points. “We started to defend and force some turnovers. We came out and played as strong as we could.”
Central coach Diane Rollins said Calais’ defense in the fourth was just too much.
“We couldn’t get our shots off,” she said. “They stepped up their defense and in our face; we weren’t running off screens the way we should have.”
The Blue Devils’ three leading scorers combined to shoot 16-for-27 (59.2 percent).
Feck made all four of her first-quarter shots and scored 12 points in the period as the Blue Devils took a 21-11 lead.
Both teams played man-to-man defense with pressure, but neither squad seemed to get flustered in the key stretches.
McShane had O’Brien covering Central’s Katie Ahearn. The 5-foot-10 forward had 15 points and 14 rebounds.
Martin guarded Danielle Rollins. The sophomore guard went 9-for-16 from the field in the first three quarters, which is when she scored all 20 of her points.
But both Central players fouled out in the fourth.
“When Jenny got in foul trouble, we had to take her off Crystal Martin a little bit and that opened [Martin] up,” said Diane Rollins, who is Jenny Rollins’ mother.
Martin had a team-high 10 rebounds and Mahan had eight.
BLUE DEVILS 67, RED DEVILS 57
Calais (15-5) Central (17-3)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Smith 0 2 2 4 2 Collins 1 1 5
Martin 6 10 5 10 19 Davis 2 5 6
Eagan 4 7 5 10 14 Elliott 0 0 0
O’Brien 2 8 0 0 4 Ma. Jones 1 2
Feck 6 10 5 6 20 Rollins 9 20 1 20
C. Taylor 0 0 0 0 0 Underhill 0 0
McGinley 0 0 0 0 0 Me. Jones 1 2
L. Taylor 0 0 0 0 0 Daniel 2 4 7
Leon 0 0 0 0 0 Bell 0 1 0 0
Mahan 4 6 0 0 8 Ahearn 6 12 15
Gillespie 0 0 0 0 0 Lyford 0 1 0
Totals 22 43 17 30 67 22 47 11 19 57
Calais 21 33 46 67
Central 11 31 48 57
3-pt. goals: Calais (6-9): Feck 3-5, Martin 2-3, Eagan 1-1; Central (2-5): Davis 1-1, Rollins 1-4
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