BANGOR – It has been many years since the John Bapst girls basketball team has made a tournament appearance on its home court – the Bangor Auditorium.

Years spent in Class A represented part of that struggle, but now in their first year back in Class B the Crusaders’ drought will end later this week after they defeated Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield 46-36 in a preliminary-round contest Tuesday night.

The win advances No. 7 John Bapst (14-5) to a regional quarterfinal against No. 2 Camden Hills of Rockport (16-2) at 9:05 p.m. Friday.

“These kids want this so bad, especially the seniors,” said John Bapst coach Mike Webb. “There are three or four girls who have been here for four years. They started out really struggling, and back then we were playing in Class A, but we have seniors like Chere Wickstrom, Taylor Greenlaw, Ashley Freeman and Gwen Wadleigh who have been really determined all season.”

John Bapst led just 32-31 through three periods, but broke this game open in the fourth quarter with a spread offense featuring guards Wickstrom, Greenlaw, Freeman and sophomore Eve Jordan that controlled the time of possession and cashed in at the free-throw line.

The Crusaders made 12 of 14 from the line in the final period after making five straight to close out the third quarter, and their lengthy possessions left the 10th-seeded Huskies (11-8) little time to generate much offense of their own.

“We like our guards in the open floor, we’re very hard to guard,” said Webb. “We thought we could get them in foul trouble, and with 24-for-34 from the free-throw line [for the game], it worked. I think we were a little quicker than they were.”

Wickstrom led John Bapst offensively with 15 points, including 11 of 12 from the line overall, including six straight in the fourth quarter.

“They were in foul trouble, so we just drove and worked the ball in to see what we could get because they were playing tough defense,” said Wickstrom.

And while John Bapst was working its way to the line, MCI was unable to work the ball inside, and as a result of their perimeter-oriented game the Huskies attempted just six free throws on the night, making four.

MCI’s leading scorer on the season, junior forward Victoria Huff, managed just six points, while senior guard Kasey Dodge paced the Huskies with 13 – nine on 3-for-4 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc.

“We didn’t match up very well against them in man-to-man, and Huff’s a very tough player to guard, so we decided in the second half to go to our zone,” said Webb. “We had a couple of kids who didn’t know where [Dodge] was, but we contained Huff pretty well, and we knew the big thing we needed to do was to rebound. They’re a very good rebounding team, but our kids worked hard on the boards.”

John Bapst finished with a 28-19 rebounding advantage, as sophomore center Hillary Laferriere grabbed a game-high nine boards and Freeman added seven rebounds.

Sophomore center Ruth Oviatt led MCI off the glass with six rebounds.

CRUSADERS 46, HUSKIES 36

MCI (11-8) John Bapst (14-5)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

B. Asaro 2 4 0 1 4 Jordan 0 2 4

A. Asaro 2 4 0 0 5 Freeman 3 6 10

Dodge 5 8 0 0 13 Nichols 0 2 0

Oviatt 1 3 3 4 5 Greenlaw 3 8

Perkins 0 1 0 0 0 Wickstrm 2 11 12 15

Faulkner 0 0 0 0 0 Wadleigh 1 2

V. Huff 3 17 0 0 6 McGuan 0 2 0

Lorentsen 1 4 1 1 3 Gibson 0 0 0

Ky. Huff 0 4 0 0 0 Laferriere 2 7

Clement 0 0 0 0 0

Ka. Huff 0 2 0 0 0

Totals 14 47 4 6 36 Totals 11 27 24 34 46

MCI 14 23 31 36

John Bapst 14 23 32 46

3-pt. goals – MCI (4-12): Dodge 3-4, A. Asaro 1-1, Ky. Huff 0-1, Ka. Huff 0-1, V. Huff 0-5; John Bapst (0-4): Jordan 0-1, McGuan 0-1, Wickstrom 0-2

Attendance: 450 (est.)