BANGOR – Thursday night’s Eastern Maine Class D semifinal wasn’t a free throw shooting clinic, but Lee’s Samantha Cole made one when the Pandas needed it the most.

Cole’s shot, with 1.4 seconds left in the game, boosted the No. 2 Lee Academy girls to a 43-42 victory over No. 3 Hodgdon and into Saturday morning’s regional title game.

The Pandas, who go to 19-2, will face the winner of Thursday night’s second semifinal between Shead of Eastport and Katahdin of Stacyville. It will be their third straight trip to the EM championship game.

Cole’s chance came after she was pushed in the lane trying to make it through the Hawks’ 2-3 zone defense. The foul was Hodgdon’s 10th, which put Lee into the double bonus.

And it was a good thing Cole would have two chances to break a 42-42 tie, because the Pandas made just nine of their 20 chances at the line overall.

“I was very nervous, especially because I missed the first one prior to that,” Cole said.

The eventual winning possession came after a Hodgdon turnover, one of the Hawks’ 18 in the game.

Lee went cold for a good portion of the second half. Cole completed a conventional 3-point play with 6:23 left in the third quarter and the Pandas didn’t score again until Shelby Pickering made two free throws with 4:03 remaining in the game. Cole’s jumper with 2:24 left was Lee’s first field goal in the fourth.

“It is the Bangor Auditorium and it’s really nerve-wracking here,” Pickering said. “It seems like we’ve had that happen in both games. We’ll work on it in practice.”

Cole’s basket tied the game at 36-36, and the teams would get to 40-40 with 51.6 left after Lee’s Ashlee Gifford hit a jump shot. Collette Sloat (17 points) responded for Hodgdon with about 35 seconds remaining, but Cole and Pickering each made a free throw to tie it at 42 points apiece. Pickering’s free throw came after she stole the ball in the open court.

Pickering led the Pandas with 14 points, but she didn’t score from the floor in the second half. The Hawks played a diamond-and-1 defense on the junior forward for most of the game. Sloat started out on Pickering and Amanda Fitzpatrick took over.

“We watched their [quarterfinal] against Fort Fairfield and they did that, so that’s where we got the idea for it,” Fitzpatrick. “Coach [Wendy Ivey] is real pleased with us. She said we did real well. A few things didn’t go our way in the end.”

The Hawks made two of their last 12 free throw attempts.

With Pickering closely guarded, Cole finished with 11 points and three other players had at least six points.

“Our other starters and bench people have to step up,” Cole said.

Pickering did have 17 rebounds. Marci Moors and Kristen Hersom combined for 13 more.

Hodgdon’s Erin Foster had 10 points and 12 rebounds.

PANDAS 43, HAWKS 42

Hodgdon (15-6) Lee (19-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

C. Sloat 7 20 3 4 17 J. Moors 0 0

A. Sloat 3 4 1 4 7 Pickering 5 13 4 8 14

McGary 0 1 0 0 0 Maxwell 0 1 0

Blanchette 1 4 0 0 2 M. Moors 3 11 1 2 7

D. Fitzpatrick 0 1 0 0 0 Hersom 2 13 1 5 5

A. Fitzpatrick 2 10 0 2 5 Cole 4 11

Foster 4 9 2 4 10 Ham 0 1 0

Dwyer 0 4 1 3 1 Gifford 3 9 6

Totals 17 53 7 17 42 17 60 20 43

Hodgdon 10 23 32 42

Lee 15 28 31 43

3-pt. goals ? Hodgdon (1-11): A. Fitzpatrick 1-8, Blanchette 0-2, C. Sloat 0-1; Lee (0-9): M. Moors 0-3, Hersom 0-5, Gifford 0-1