Undefeated Lee to battle determined Lakers Greenville tops Tigers; Pandas roll

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BANGOR – The undefeated Lee Academy girls basketball team began defense of its Eastern Maine Class D championship in impressive fashion Monday and will face the gritty and athletic Greenville Lakers in Thursday’s 3:35 p.m. Eastern D Tournament semifinal at the Bangor Auditorium.

Top seed Lee Academy, 19-0, scored the game’s first eight points and used 11 first-quarter points from freshman guard Aarika Ritchie to build a 21-2 lead en route to an impressive 77-30 victory over ninth seed Greater Houlton Christian Academy, which was making its first-ever appearance in the tournament.

Meanwhile, fifth seed Greenville received 19 points, 10 rebounds and three steals from 5-foot-11 junior center Beth Bartley and 13 points, 13 rebounds and four steals from senior guard Rica Breton in upsetting fourth seed Fort Fairfield 47-31.

Greenville, now 14-4, used a 7-0 run at the end of the first half to build a 25-14 lead and that enabled the Lakers to overcome a two-point third quarter and hold off the Tigers.

“We tend to play in cycles like that,” said Bartley, who had 12 first-half points. “Today, we pulled it together a lot better than we did in our preliminary game [43-37 win over No. 12 Machias]. That spurt at the end of the half gave us a lot of momentum.”

Breton added, “We work well under pressure. We pull together as a team when we need to.”

Greenville did an effective job containing 5-10 Fort Fairfield center Amanda Churchill with its 1-2-2 and 1-3-1 zones and Fort Fairfield couldn’t hit from the outside to create some space for Churchill, who was held to two points.

Fort Fairfield, which went just 13-for-53 from the field and 2-for-16 from 3-point territory, managed to claw its way back into the game in the second half thanks to its box-and-one on Bartley, keyed by Brittany McLaughlin’s airtight coverage, and its tenacious man-to-man defense that forced several turnovers.

Junior forward Sheena Esency had six points in a 10-3 spurt that spanned the third and fourth quarters and pulled the Tigers within 30-24 with six minutes remaining.

But that was as close as they would come as they failed to capitalize at the free throw line and Bartley drove the lane to hit three key baskets in between a Breton jumper and two Breton free throws that made it 41-29.

“You’ve got to take those given opportunities and get the team on a new roll,” said Bartley.

Greenville put the game away by hitting 10 of its 12 free- throw attempts in the fourth quarter.

Hannah Breton had 11 points, eight rebounds and three steals for Greenville.

Esancy finished with 11 points and seven rebounds for Fort Fairfield, which finished up at 17-3.

Kerri Cunningham had seven points, five rebounds and three steals and Churchill grabbed eight rebounds and had three blocked shots.

In the second girls game, Lee’s Ritchie hit her first three 3-pointers and also had a steal and a layup over the first eight minutes.

“They came out in a zone so we wanted to take some outside shots to get our outside game going as well as our inside game,” said Ritchie. “I was more relaxed after I hit my first three-pointer.”

“We came out real well. All of our shots were falling and everyone was confident,” said Lee senior forward Shelby Pickering, who had 14 points, eight rebounds and five steals.

“They’re real good,” said Greater Houlton Christian Academy coach Vaughn Farrar.

Ritchie finished with 15 points and three steals; Karin Bird had 11 points and three steals and Amanda Gifford contributed 10 points. Dana Houghton contributed nine points and eight rebounds. Lee went 34-for-66 from the floor.

Amanda Jago had nine points and 10 rebounds for the Eagles, who wound up 12-7. Megan Korhonen also had nine points.

LAKERS 47, TIGERS 31

Greenville (14-4) Fort Fairfield (17-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Larsen 0 1 0 0 0 Cunninghm 3 19 0 0 7

Bartley 7 15 5 7 19 Esancy 4 6 10 11

Gary 1 9 0 0 2 McLaughlin 2 5 5

R. Breton 4 11 5 6 13 Searles 0 6 0

H. Breton 3 9 5 6 11 Churchill 1 2

Boucher 1 1 0 0 2 Hathaway 3 13 0 0 6

Fowle 0 1 0 0 0 Beckwith 0 0

Gilbert 0 0 0 0 0 Harris 0 0 0

Muzzy 0 0 0 0 0 Blaisdell 0 0

Chasse 0 0 0 0

Nelson 0 0 0 0

Totals 16 47 15 19 47 Totals 13 53 10 31

Greenville 15 25 27 47

Fort Fairfield 8 14 20 31

3-pt. goals – Greenville (0-3): R. Breton 0-2, H. Breton 0-1; Fort Fairfield (2-16): Cunningham 1-3, McLaughlin 1-2, Searles 0-3, Hathaway 0-8

PANDAS 77, EAGLES 30

Gr. Houlton (12-7) Lee Academy (19-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Farrar 1 4 2 2 4 Pickering 7 12 0 0 14

A. Jago 3 13 2 2 9 Bird 5 9 11

Korhonen 3 8 2 2 9 Gifford 5 11 10

Sjoberg 2 5 0 0 4 Ritchie 6 10 15

Lord 0 1 0 0 0 K.. Harris 2 6 5

Livezey 0 0 0 0 0 B. Harris 3 7

J. Jago 0 2 0 0 0 Moors 1 1 4

Vargas 1 3 0 0 2 As.Jandreau 0 0

C. Harris 1 1 0 0 2 Houghton 4 9

Boutlier 0 0 0 0 0 N.Jandreau 0 0

E. Lee 0 0 0 0 0 A.Jandreau 1 2

Bentley 0 1 0 0 0 McLaughlin 0 0

Totals 11 38 6 6 30 Totals 34 66 77

GHCA 2 14 20 30

Lee Academy 21 48 59 77

3-pt. goals – GHCA (2-6): Korhonen 1-1, A. Jago 1-3, Farrar 0-2; Lee (4-4): Ritchie 3-3, B. Harris 1-1