Nokomis knocks off Bangor Sixth-seeded Warriors advance to Thursday night semifinal

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BANGOR – The Nokomis girls basketball team has had a bad habit lately of letting its defense do all the work in the fourth quarter of games.

The No. 6 Warriors played stellar man-to-man in Friday afternoon’s Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal against No. 3 Bangor, but this time Nokomis made the big shots, too, as the Warriors knocked off the Rams 33-31 at the Bangor Auditorium.

Nokomis, 16-4, will face the winner of Saturday morning’s 9:35 quarterfinal matchup between No. 2 Skowhegan and No. 7 Oxford Hills of South Paris. The semifinal will be Thursday at 7:05 p.m.

Bangor closes out its season with a 17-3 record, including a 2-1 regular-season mark against the Warriors.

Nokomis had a team-high 11 points from freshman Kelley Paradis, a key 3-pointer from Teresa Cooper in the fourth quarter, and a game-changing steal by Alyssa Bragdon late.

Bangor rallied early in the fourth with two jumpers from Amy Hackett and two Serena Dubois free throws to erase Nokomis’ 26-20 lead. With 2:09 left, Hackett grabbed a rebound and went the length of the court for a basket and a 31-29 lead.

But Nokomis worked the ball to Cooper on the ensuing possession and she sank a 3-pointer to give the Warriors a 32-31 lead with 1:44 to go.

“I just wasn’t sure if that first one in the fourth quarter was ever going to drop,” Nokomis coach Earl Anderson said. “… We just needed to make one and I thought Cooper’s [3-pointer] was huge.”

After a series of timeouts and turnovers, the Rams got the ball under the basket but Bragdon got a hand in on the play to cause Bangor to turn over the ball with 31.5 seconds left.

“We were just trying to stay in front of them and not foul them and not give them a chance for an open layup,” said Nokomis senior guard Michelle Barden, who had two steals in the fourth quarter. “We had the confidence we could do it, we kept our heads in it and played hard.”

Bragdon made the front end of a 1-and-1 with seven seconds left. Bangor’s Erin Porter rebounded the miss and Bangor coach Tom Tennett took a 60-second timeout to discuss the final 3.8 seconds of the game.

When the Rams re-entered the game, Angst inbounded the ball to Weymouth from halfcourt. Angst broke for the basket as Weymouth passed the ball back to her. Angst (12 points) drove the right baseline and got a shot off in time, but the ball glanced off the rim as time expired.

“We thought we had four offensive kids and we thought one of them would have a chance to get to the basket,” Tennett said. “She did a fantastic job … it’s unfortunate it didn’t go in but we did a lot of things wrong during the game.”

WARRIORS 33, RAMS 31

Nokomis (16-4) Bangor (17-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Paradis 5 9 0 0 11 Ogden 0 0 0

Barden 1 4 0 0 2 Angst 3 8 12

Peterson 4 9 1 2 9 Porter 1 8 5

Al. Bragdon 0 8 3 4 3 Heath 0 1 0

Cooper 3 11 0 0 7 Hackett 3 5 6

As. Bragdon 0 1 1 2 1 Lincoln 0 1 0

Welch 0 4 0 0 0 Weymouth 2 4

Dubois 0 1 2 2

Curtis 1 2 0 2

Godinez 0 0 0 0

Totals 13 46 5 8 33 10 32 11 20 31

Nokomis 10 20 26 33

Bangor 10 16 20 31

3-pt. goals – Nokomis (2-15): Paradis 1-2, Cooper 1-6, Al. Bragdon 0-7; Bangor (0-3): Angst 0-1, Porter 0-2