Undefeated Pandas hope youth will be served in title quest

Sometimes, experience and talent aren’t the most important attributes of a winning team at the tournament.

Sometimes, it comes down to poise – as in, the ability to deal with the pressure of hearing catcalls from the crowd after a missed free throw or turnover or staying in a game despite a 20-point deficit at halftime.

Even though Ron Weatherbee’s Lee Academy team doesn’t have a ton of experience at the high school level, the three freshmen who start for the undefeated Pandas have been through enough close games in front of loud crowds so that Weatherbee isn’t too worried.

“Those freshmen have played a ton of quality minutes,” he said. “They’ve seen some very good teams, and right from the start.”

Lee makes its 2005 tourney debut next week, but the Eastern Maine tournament opens today with a Class B quarterfinal matchup between No. 6 Hermon (15-4) and No. 3 Winslow (15-3) at 3:05 p.m.

The Class B quarterfinals continue Saturday, followed by Class D quarterfinals Saturday and Monday. The Class C quarterfinals start Tuesday and continue Wednesday.

The top-ranked Pandas (18-0) will face No. 9 Greater Houlton Christian (12-6) Monday at 3:35 p.m.

Weatherbee said the two upperclassmen who start for Lee, All-Maine senior forward Shelby Pickering and junior guard Kerri Harris, have provided on-court leadership for the freshmen starters, a group made up of point guard Aarika Ritchie, off-guard Amanda Gifford and forward Karin Bird. Freshman Dana Houghton is the first forward off the bench.

“I don’t think nerves have been an issue,” Weatherbee said. “They have played all season a lot. Shelby and Kerri have helped them along and they’ve played enough big games.”

The youthful Pandas haven’t exactly been coddled. Weatherbee said they got a taste of big-time pressure in their first game of the season, which came at Class C Calais. Pickering and Ritchie fouled out in regulation, which left the Harris and the rest of the freshmen to fend for themselves. They pulled out a 73-65 overtime win thanks to five free throws from Bird and two baskets from Houghton.

Now that’s the kind of poise coaches like to see.

“It wasn’t like we had to wait for the 10th game for something like that,” Weatherbee said. “The crowd at Calais is very supportive of their teams. So [the freshmen] got the experience right there early.”

Throughout the rest of the season, Lee pulled out wins and survived tough crowds at places like Woodland and rival Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln. The experience of playing in a Class D state soccer final and off-season basketball like AAU and YBOA has also helped, Weatherbee said.

And last December, the Pandas traveled to Augusta for Cony High’s Capital City Hoop Classic where the Lee girls held their own in losses to tough teams Cony and Maranacook of Readfield.

But does that all change when a team steps on the Auditorium floor?

“It’ll be a little different experience by all means,” Weatherbee said. “There’s been a lot of jitters about things like, which locker room is ours, which bench is ours, when can we shoot around, that sort of thing. I think it is a little bit of nerves, the thinking that this is something different, something that they always went to see their friends play in. But now, this is their time.”