BANGOR – Schoolgirl basketball teams with a front line of 5-foot-11, 5-10 and 5-11, and two quick 5-6 guards are tough to beat.

In Saturday morning’s Eastern Maine Class D final, Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook found that out the hard way.

The inside play of top-ranked Woodland’s Michelle Ferry and Courtney Cochran was too much for the second-ranked Warriors to handle, and the Dragons used a 16-7 second-quarter spurt to pull away for a 52-32 victory at the Bangor Auditorium.

Woodland will face Valley of Bingham in Saturday’s 1:05 p.m. state final at the Augusta Civic Center. Valley beat Rangeley 39-31 in the Western Maine final.

Coming in, the Warriors matched up well with the Dragons’ height, but once Southern Aroostook 5-10 senior forward-center Audrey Charette picked up two quick fouls in the game’s first 31/2 minutes, Woodland’s inside game was unstoppable.

“One of the things about basketball, it’s a game of matchups,” Woodland coach Arnie Clark said. “Sometimes you just have a hard time matching up with the other team. We were lucky we could match up with them, and they had a hard time matching up with us.”

Southern Aroostook had a tough time with Woodland’s stifling defensive style of play. Throughout the first half, the Dragons played straight up man-to-man but double-teamed whoever had the ball, then switched to a 3-2 zone in the second half. However, Clark noted that the Warriors simply weren’t hitting their shots.

“They didn’t shoot well from [the floor] the first half. We knew that was gonna change in the second half,” he said.

The Dragons held the Warriors to 4-of-26 shooting from the floor (15 percent) in the first half.

“Yeah, defense is our key, I think. I think that’s gonna be the key right there [in the state final],” said Woodland sophomore guard Rachel Torrey, who racked up 12 points and a game-high six steals.

Ferry, a senior, and Cochran, a sophomore, fed off each other well while guards Torrey and Lacey Gillespie did a nice job of getting them the ball.

“Our guards work really hard to get me and Courtney the ball, and once they do, me and Courtney play really well with each other,” said Ferry, who finished with 14 points, 10 in the first half, and nine rebounds. “We look for each other, and that’s the biggest thing.”

Charette’s foul trouble plagued the Warriors in the first half as she sat through a good portion of the second quarter, when the Dragons stretched their lead out.

“Audrey is one of our biggest leaders on the floor,” SAHS coach Jessica Porter said. “When we can’t have that, it kind of takes the wind out of our sails a little bit. Woodland’s a great team, that’s all there is to it. They deserve it. We wish them luck.”

Cochran tossed in 13 points and hauled down nine rebounds for Woodland, while Charette paced the Warriors with 13 points and eight rebounds and Shana Martin tossed in seven points and grabbed 10 boards.

Looking ahead to their matchup against Valley, Ferry said, “We’ve got to stop [guard Kristin] Baker and stop their inside game.”

DRAGONS 52, WARRIORS 32

So. Aroostook (19-3) Woodland (19-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Au.Chrette 6 9 1 3 13 Mitchell 0 0

King 0 0 0 0 0 Clark 0 1 0 0

Collier 1 5 1 2 3 Gillespie 1 2

Desmond 0 0 0 0 0 Ham 1 1 2

McLaughln 0 6 0 0 0 Ferry 5 12 14

Grant 0 0 0 0 0 Nichols 1 2 5

Clark 1 5 2 4 5 Cochran 4 10 13

Caswell 1 3 0 0 2 Bergin 1 1 2

Grant 0 0 0 0 0 Parks 0 0 0

Ryan 0 0 0 0 0 Murphy 1 4 0 2

Hudson 0 0 0 0 0 Torrey 5 9 12

B.Charette 0 1 0 0 0

Martin 3 18 1 2 7

Carr 0 0 0 0 0

Am.Chrette 1 1 0 0 2

Totals 13 48 5 11 32 Totals 19 45 14 25 52

So. Aroostook 6 13 25 32

Woodland 12 28 43 52

3-pt. goals – Southern Aroostook (1-5): Clark 1-3, Collier 0-1, McLaughlin 0-1; Woodland (0-3): Torrey 0-1, Ferry 0-1, Gillespie 0-1