Three champs defending titles Dragons, MDI, Calais in action

Three of last year’s Eastern Maine girls basketball champions have a chance to defend their regional titles in Saturday’s EM final games.

And that means two of those teams are a game away from defending state titles, too.

Woodland, Class D’s two-time defending Eastern Maine and state champion, will face Lee Saturday at 9:05 a.m. for that classification’s regional crown.

Class B MDI, which has also won two straight Eastern Maine and state championships, will take on Maranacook of Readfield in the 2:05 p.m. game.

And Calais will have a chance to defend its title and get back to the Class C state game when it takes on No. 1 Dexter at 7:05 p.m.

That Woodland and MDI are back shouldn’t be a shock. The Dragons lost their two top players stat-wise, but returned much of its stellar team. The Trojans brought back four starters and have had several of last year’s bench players play huge roles this season.

The Blue Devils, however, are something of a surprise.

Calais lost three of its five starters, including All-Maine players Katie Frost and Lanna Martin, who was named Miss Maine Basketball last year, and experienced guard Nanci Feck.

“Everyone said from the beginning that we wouldn’t be able to do this and we wouldn’t get back to the tournaments, it’s all over,” sophomore starter Danielle O’Brien said. “We came out strong and we wanted to prove to everybody that we could do this.”

Frost and Martin combined to average almost 40 points per game last year. The Devils have played tough defense this year, but the offense has been slower to come, coach Bob McShane said.

“We lost three of our first five and looked horrible doing it,” he said after Friday’s 67-57 semifinal victory over Central of Corinth. “I mean, it was some of the ugliest basketball I’ve seen as a coach. But they didn’t give up and we came together. I think tradition must have something to do with it.”

It certainly must – Calais will be playing in its 11th straight Eastern Maine final game and will be gunning for its eighth title since that stretch started. The Blue Devils last lost a regional game in 2000, when George Stevens of Blue Hill went on to the state game.

The Class D game between Woodland and Lee is a rematch of last year’s final, which the Dragons won 65-53. The two teams split two regular season games with Woodland taking the first game 46-41 and Lee winning the second 48-35.

MDI and Maranacook play in two different conferences, so their only common opponent was Rockland, which MDI beat 59-34 in a Class B semifinal Wednesday. The Black Bears and Tigers split their two-game regular season series.