Patriots, Dragons mining for gold balls Waynflete hopes size trumps youth

Thursday’s Class D girls state basketball championship will be the meeting of one very experienced team and another trying for its first state basketball championship.

Eastern Maine champion Woodland, the two-time defending state winner, will face Waynflete of Portland, which won its first Western Maine championship last weekend.

The Dragons and the Flyers will meet for the state title at 7:35 p.m. Thursday at the Bangor Auditorium.

Coach Jan Veinot’s Flyers are just the second team other than Richmond, Monmouth or Rangeley to win a Western Maine title since 1991.

Waynflete, which was ranked second in the WM tournament, beat No. 4 Valley of Bingham 46-39 in the regional final.

The Flyers went 17-1 in the regular season with their only loss coming against Traip of Kittery, a Class C school that lost in that classification’s quarterfinal round.

Waynflete’s roster is stocked with tall forwards and centers.

The Flyers are led by 6-foot-1 junior forward Khalilah Ummah and 6-2 senior center Indira Gowell, who have both been averaging about 12 points per game. Junior Noelle Surette, a versatile 5-9 forward who was named the Western Maine Class D tourney’s top player, has been averaging about 11 ppg. Surette transferred to Waynflete this year from Class A Noble of North Berwick.

Surette is considered a dangerous shooter given her height advantage over most guards – she made two 3-pointers in the Western Maine final. Then again, Woodland’s own 5-9 forward, all-tourney member Katie Smith, has added a mid-range and perimeter game this year. She also made two 3-pointers in the first quarter of Saturday’s Eastern Maine final.

Junior Desiree Lester, another 6-footer, comes off the bench, as does 5-11 senior center Grace Wright.

The Flyers’ starting guards are seniors Susannah Hamblin (about 8 ppg) and Genni Dubuque.

The Dragons counter with Smith, tourney MVP and point guard Kaitlyn Leeman, guard-forward Lauren Troiani, and defensive standout Erika Brown, plus key bench players Kati Holmes, Megan Lord and freshman Michelle Ferry, whose 3-pointer at the end of the fourth quarter of the regional final sent the game into overtime.

Leeman, Smith and Brown all started in last year’s state championship victory over Rangeley.