BANGOR – The Ashland girls basketball team had the perfect game plan for Thursday afternoon’s Eastern Maine Class D semifinal against Southern Aroostook.

After all, the No. 3 Hornets were the only team to beat the No. 2 Warriors in the regular season.

Ashland simply went back to the game plan it used in a four-point win last December, and got huge games from freshmen Melinda Chasse and Whitney Flint, as the Hornets knocked off Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook 50-46 at the Bangor Auditorium.

The Hornets will now have the tough task of facing defending EM champion Lee, which earned its 19th win with a 67-36 victory over Greenville in the second semifinal.

Ashland, now 18-2, will return to the Auditorium to face the No. 1 Pandas Saturday at 9:05 a.m.

The Hornets will be in the hunt for their first regional title since 1991, when they went on to beat Monmouth in the state final.

The Warriors wrap up their season at 18-2, which includes a home win against Ashland last month.

Cousins Flint and Chasse, who scored 15 and 12 points, respectively, combined to made eight of their 16 field-goal attempts and 11 of 13 free-throw attempts.

“When you’ve got freshmen stepping up and making foul shots like that … it says so much about what they’re capable of doing,” Ashland coach Ben Lothrop said. “They just meld and mesh so good with this group of kids, older veteran players.”

The things Ashland was able to do in the December win – run the floor, keep Southern Aroostook from shooting 3-pointers, and take Audrey Charette out of the game – were the same things that worked Thursday.

Charette, the Warriors’ junior center, carried four fouls into the fourth quarter, but SAHS still had a 41-36 lead at the start of the period. A Flint jumper and an Angela Belskis basket quickly got Ashland within one point. Southern Aroostook’s Mindy Watson hit a free throw, but Chasse was fouled while putting back an offensive rebound and made the free throw for a 43-42 SAHS lead with 3:49 left.

“That was big,” she said. “It was exciting for me to do that.”

It was an incredibly costly foul for Southern Aroostook. It was Charette’s fifth and it put Ashland into the bonus.

“We knew we had to get her to the bench and her going out in the third quarter really helped a lot,” said Chasse, who played on the bottom of Ashland’s 2-3 zone that made it hard for the Warriors to get the ball inside to Charette.

The Warriors seemed to deflate with Charette on the bench.

Ashland’s Ashley Nemer took advantage with a 3-pointer from the top of the key for a four-point lead. Southern Aroostook’s Kristinn Watson responded with a free throw, but then Nemer hit one to maintain the four-point edge. Southern Aroostook suffered another big loss when forward Erin Caswell fouled out.

“That made it tough,” Southern Aroostook coach Jon Porter said. “We’ve relied on our post players all year and when they get knocked out it’s tough to overcome.”

Mindy Watson, the Warriors’ only senior starter, hit a 3-pointer from the left side to keep SAHS in the game, but in the final minute Flint made two free throws and Ashlee Peters put in one to seal the win.

Ashland went 16-for-34 (47 percent) from the floor and 17-for-24 (70.8 percent) from the free-throw line.

Charette, who had 35 points and 14 rebounds in the Warriors’ home win over the Hornets, managed 11 points and 10 rebounds Thursday. Mindy Watson had 13 and four assists.

“She wanted it bad and I’m proud of the way she played,” Porter said of the senior guard.

HORNETS 50, WARRIORS 46

Ashland (18-2) So. Aroostook (18-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Belskis 3 6 3 4 9 Au. Chrtt 5 10 1 2 11

Chasse 4 8 4 5 12 Hardy 1 1 2

Flint 4 8 7 8 15 McLaughlin 1 2

Nemer 4 9 2 4 11 Collier 2 7 5

Chamberlain 0 0 0 0 0 Clark 2 3 4

Peters 0 2 1 3 1 Caswell 2 3 4

D. Long 1 1 0 0 2 M. Watson 4 19 2 5 13

K. Watson 2 6 5

Totals 16 34 17 24 50 19 57 46

Ashland 11 26 36 50

Southern Aroostook 10 28 41 46

3-pt. goals – Ashland (1-5): Nemer 1-5; Southern Aroostook (4-16): M. Watson 3-12, Collier 1-4