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BANGOR – Two tournament games, two last-second shots, one berth in the Eastern Maine Class B final.
The Mount Desert Island girls pulled out another shocker in Wednesday afternoon’s regional semifinal, getting a 3-pointer from sophomore Kelsey Stratton with 9.8 seconds left in the fourth quarter to lift the No. 5 Trojans to a 48-47 victory over No. 8 Rockland at the Bangor Auditorium.
“Like they always say, you don’t have to lead but one second in the game and that’s about all we did today, really,” said MDI coach Chip Taylor.
Stratton poured in 22 points on impressive 8-for-10 shooting as the Trojans advanced to their first EM final since 2003.
MDI, now 15-5, will face No. 3 Winslow in the regional title game Saturday at 2:05 p.m.. The 17-3 Black Raiders edged No. 2 Maranacook of Readfield 41-36 in Wednesday’s first semifinal.
MDI’s win came five days after senior Emma Stanley drained a 3-pointer with two seconds left to beat No. 4 Ellsworth in the quarterfinals.
“We know we can come back so we don’t really get down on ourselves,” Stratton said. “… We were hoping to get in it a little quicker but if we stay in it we know we can come back.”
Stratton hit the winner, but Chelsea Dow and Sarah Banks helped put the Trojans into a position to challenge the Tigers.
Rockland led at the end of each quarter and started the fourth with a 39-35 advantage, but two Dow baskets knotted the game at 41-41, the third tie of the second half.
Rockland’s Kasey Felt (12 points) hit a 3-pointer to regain the lead, but Banks banked in a pass from Stratton to get MDI within one point.
Stratton nailed a jumper to give the Trojans their first lead since early in the game. Caitlin Hynes responded for the Tigers, hitting a jump shot off a pass from Lindsay Barnes with 55 seconds left.
After a series of timeouts and fouls, Felt made the first free throw of a 1-and-1 with 27.6 seconds left to go up 47-45, but missed the second. MDI’s Amanda Young then passed the ball to Stratton, who drained the shot from the left side of the key with 9.8 seconds left.
Rockland missed a desperation shot from the left baseline.
Stratton hit four of five 3-point attempts including two wide-open shots from the top of the key in the third quarter.
Dow, a senior center, had a slow start in the first half as Rockland limited MDI’s looks inside but her three second-half baskets in the paint took some pressure off Stratton.
“If they double down [we] can kick it back out,” said Stratton, who also had a team-high nine rebounds.
The Trojans’ zone defense held Hynes to eight points and Barnes to five, but freshman Dana Clark scored 10 points off the bench.
“We were focused, we were loose, we were ready to play,” Rockland coach Karen Bickmore said. But once [we hit] the floor, we did not achieve the level, especially the defensive intensity, we did in the previous game.”
TROJANS 48, TIGERS 47
Rockland (14-7) MDI (15-5)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Todd 2 8 0 0 6 Stanley 3 6 2 8
N. Clark 1 2 0 0 2 Stratton 8 10 2 2 22
K. Felt 5 8 1 2 12 Records 0 1 0
Barnes 2 5 1 2 5 Banks 2 6 4
Hynes 4 14 0 4 8 Hodgdon 0 1 0
Hansen 1 1 2 2 4 Falt 1 3 3
D. Clark 4 11 0 0 10 Am. Young 2 5
Dow 3 8 0 6
Totals 19 49 4 10 47 19 43 48
Rockland 10 24 39 47
MDI 4 19 35 48
3-pt. goals – Rockland (5-15): D. Clark 2-5, Todd 2-7, K. Felt 1-2, Barnes 0-1; MDI (5-9): Stratton 4-5, Am. Young 1-2, Stanley 0-2
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