BANGOR – Three years ago, the Nokomis of Newport girls basketball team used a core group of sophomores in its drive to Eastern Maine and state Class A championships.

On Saturday night, seven of those girls – now seniors – pulled off another huge win in the EM title game at the Bangor Auditorium.

The Warriors used stellar defense and 18 points from senior standout Danielle Clark to earn a 44-41 victory over No. 1 Cony and the program’s second regional crown.

“We win close games,” said Clark, a Miss Basketball finalist. “We have more poise than anybody I’ve ever seen.”

Nokomis, now 20-1, returns to the Auditorium March 15 to face McAuley of Portland in the state final at 3:05 p.m. The Warriors beat the Lions in the 2001 Class A final.

Clark also grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds, but her two boards in the fourth quarter were huge.

The first came with about 53 seconds left in the fourth and the Warriors clinging to a 40-39 win. Cony’s Karen Sirois stole the ball and got it to 6-2 sophomore Katie Rollins, who put up a shot.

The field goal attempt missed, Clark grabbed the rebound, and Rollins, who had four fouls at that point, was tagged with an over-the-back call and had to leave the game.

“I thought she only had three, but fine with me if she fouls out,” Clark said. “She’s a big body out there that’s hard to box out.”

Not only did it put the 6-1 Clark’s toughest competition on the bench, but the foul put Nokomis into the bonus. Clark made both free throws for a 42-39 lead.

Senior Lindsey Welch went to the free-throw line to shoot a 1-and-1 about 18 seconds later. She missed the first attempt but Clark grabbed the rebound and got the ball back to Welch, who was fouled and made both FT attempts.

“[Clark] gets a lot of tough rebounds in traffic and I think that’s a part of her game that’s underestimated,” Anderson said. “She’s come up with so many big rebounds to close out games, I can’t remember.”

Sirois (13 points) scored with less than two seconds remaining, but Nokomis still had a three-point lead.

Although Nokomis went into the game with a 19-1 record, the previously undefeated Rams had to be considered a bit of a favorite. Cony hadn’t scored fewer than 55 points in a game all season and had racked up 149 points in their first two tourney games.

But Nokomis’ man-to-man defense and Cony’s shooting woes – the Rams were 1-for-13 from 3-point range and 15-for-45 overall – kept Sirois and senior Ashley Underwood from doing a lot of damage on the perimeter.

“In a tournament you have to get through that one bad game. Unfortunately we had that one game that wasn’t our best. That has a lot to do with Nokomis’ defense,” Cony coach Paul Vachon said. “… Give Nokomis a lot of credit. They played great defense, holding us to [41 points] and their seniors came through at the end.”

Welch had to guard Sirois, who scored 39 points in Cony’s first two tourney games.

“I knew I couldn’t get into foul trouble,” Welch said. “Coach told me to stay wide in my stance and not reach or it would have gone downhill.”

The Warriors had a seven-point lead early in the fourth quarter but Rollins scored five straight points on a conventional 3-point play and a put-back, and Amanda Mason made a free throw to cut Nokomis’ lead to 38-37. Warrior senior Michelle Murray answered with a jumper in the lane but Rollins put back another offensive board to make it 40-39.

Rollins was 4-for-5 from the field in the fourth when she fouled out. She finished with 15 points on 6-for-8 shooting even though she spent big chunks of time on the bench.

“Our big key was missing Katie for three quarters of the game,” Vachon said. “That’s a big miss inside, 6-2.”

WARRIORS 44, RAMS 41

Nokomis (20-1) Cony (20-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Welch 2 4 2 2 7 Underwood 2 17 1 3 5

Murray 4 10 0 0 10 Mason 0 0 1

Snow 3 9 0 2 7 B. Rende 2 3 5

Paradis 0 1 0 0 0 Morang 0 0 0

Merrow 1 1 0 0 2 Dumont 1 3 2

Lowe 0 2 0 0 0 Sirois 4 14 5 13

Clark 7 15 3 5 18 Rollins 6 8 15

Totals 17 42 5 9 44 15 45 10 15 41

Nokomis 11 21 34 44

Cony 14 19 29 41

3-pt. goals ? Nokomis (5-17): Murray 2-5, Welch 1-3, Snow 1-6, Clark 1-3; Cony (1-13): B. Rende 1-1, Underwood 0-5, Sirois 0-7