But you still need to activate your account.
Sign in or Subscribe to view this content.
BAR HARBOR – It took a while for the Presque Isle girls basketball team to find its true groove on defense. Once the revenge-minded Wildcats did, they were unstoppable.
Almost a year after losing to Mount Desert Island at Bernard Parady Gymnasium, Presque Isle rolled over the Trojans 55-18 Saturday afternoon in a meeting of undefeated teams.
Senior guard Kylan Smith hit nine of her 16 shots, including three 3-pointers, en route to a game-high 21 points, as the Wildcats moved to 8-0.
Presque Isle was 9-0 last year when MDI earned a 56-55 double-overtime win on Jan. 15. It was the Wildcats’ first regular-season loss since the 2002-03 season.
“We expected them to be sky-high at the beginning of this game,” said Smith, who scored 11 points in that game. “This is a good game for us. It’s a good confidence-builder.”
MDI fell to 7-1. The two teams meet again Friday night at 7 in Presque Isle.
“I told the girls in the locker room, ‘Some of you aren’t used to being behind big, you’re not used to getting down, and I think some of you quit,'” said MDI coach Chip Taylor. “The positive side is, we’ve got six days and we get another crack at them to prove [ourselves].”
Junior center Angela Norsworthy backed up Smith with 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting.
Presque Isle sparkled with 22-for-44 shooting overall, with many baskets coming on jumpers. The Wildcats also held the Trojans to only eight points in the first half.
But it all came together midway through the third quarter.
Smith scored nine points in a 12-0 run that lasted about two minutes and pumped Presque Isle’s lead to 41-12.
The Wildcats forced seven turnovers in the third, most of which came in their run. Smith was able to convert at least two backcourt steals by PI players.
MDI went scoreless for almost five minutes until Amethyst Cousins hit a jumper with 58.2 seconds left in the third.
For the game, the Trojans made only nine field goals on 45 shots.
“It all ran downhill,” Taylor said. “We had a couple of girls miss layups and then they came down [the floor] still thinking about that and missed some defensive assignments. It just snowballed from there.”
The Wildcats played their tough man defense with a full-court press, but also played some 1-3-1 zone to keep MDI from scoring inside.
“We wanted to shut down the inside and go out on the shooters on the outside,” said the 5-10 Norsworthy, who guarded 6-foot MDI center Susan Falt.
Presque Isle had its own turnover struggles with eight in the first half, but didn’t have another until late in the third quarter and just three more from there as most of the Wildcat starters were on the bench.
“With the four-hour drive, our legs weren’t there and it took us a while to get warmed up,” Smith said. “But the defense really picked up after a while.”
WILDCATS 55, TROJANS 18
Presque Isle (8-0) MDI (7-1)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Cash 0 0 0 0 0 Young 0 3 0 0
Michaud 1 1 2 2 4 Records 0 1 0
Porter 3 6 0 0 9 Banks 0 1 0
Clukey 0 3 0 0 0 Lewis 1 7 2
Delong 2 4 0 0 5 Orman 0 3 0
Smith 9 16 0 0 21 K. Vaux 3 8 6
Watnancht 0 1 0 0 0 Cousins 4 13 8
Morris 2 5 1 2 5 Falt 0 7 0
Moody 0 2 0 0 0 Ross 1 1 2
Norswrthy 5 6 1 4 11 Lemoine 0 1 0
Braley 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 22 44 4 8 55 Totals 9 45 18
Presque Isle 9 26 41 55
MDI 2 8 14 18
3-pt. goals – Presque Isle (7-16): Porter 3-6, Smith 3-7, Delong 1-1, Moody 0-2; MDI (0-3): Young 0-1, Records 0-1, Lewis 0-1
JV: MDI 42-36
Attendance: 300 (est.)
Comments
comments for this post are closed