BUCKSPORT – Bri Kone made a pest out of herself Saturday afternoon, but her Bucksport girls basketball teammates had to have liked every minute of it.

The senior guard led a stellar defensive effort and also paced Bucksport’s offense with 18 points as the Golden Bucks logged a 49-30 victory over the Caribou Vikings in a mutual season opener Saturday afternoon at the high school gym.

Bucksport senior guard Lindsey Gordon added 14 points, including six in the fourth quarter.

With the exception of a stretch in the third quarter in which the Vikings tried to climb back, Bucksport’s man-to-man defense was too much for Caribou, which finished the game with 24 turnovers.

“I just pretty much bugged them to make them try to make fast decisions,” Kone said. “We’re a very quick team. We try to get as many steals as possible.”

The defense seemed to throw off the Vikings, who made only four field goals in the first half. Although Caribou led early in the first half, Bucksport converted two Vikings turnovers to gain the lead.

Kone completed a conventional 3-point play, and after a driving basket by Caribou’s Ali Richards (team-high 10 points), Kone stole the ball and made a layup.

She had another 3-point play in the second quarter during a 7-0 Bucks run.

The Bucks led 25-13 at the half, but the Vikings’ offense got a spark from two straight Meagan Bossie baskets and Caribou had cut the lead to 32-23.

“You have to expect a team to come out harder if they’re down,” Gordon said. “I think we weren’t there yet. But we always talk about coming back after we’re down and we actually did it, which is an improvement from last year.”

But Bucksport snapped out of its slump in the fourth quarter. Powered by Kone, who was 4-for-4 in the fourth quarter and went 8-for-9 overall, the Golden Bucks outscored the Vikings 14-4 in the first 41/2 minutes of the period.

Kone and Gordon were stellar in that span. Kone started things with a basket off a steal, then passed to Gordon for a jumper, followed by a Kone offensive-rebound putback and two Gordon free throws.

“Bri led the charge,” Bucksport coach Brendan Harvey said. “We fed off her intensity. We need to be aggressive and intense on defense for us to do well.”

Kone hassled the Vikings into two more turnovers, both of which she converted.

“We turned the ball over and over,” Caribou coach Bill Schofield said. “It was bad passes, not being patient in our offense, and they capitalized on it. If you look at the whole game they didn’t shoot well, but they got layup after layup because we turned the ball over.”

Caribou’s Kristen Espling had a game-high 10 rebounds and Karyn King, who guarded Kone at times but got into foul trouble in the third quarter, had eight. The Bucks had a 31-30 rebounding edge.

GOLDEN BUCKS 49, VIKINGS 30

Caribou (0-1) Bucksport (1-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Kinney 0 2 0 0 0 Robinson 0 0

Collins 0 0 0 0 0 LaLonde 0 0 0

Bouchard 0 0 0 0 0 Gourley 0 0 1

Price 0 2 0 0 0 Lanpher 0 3 0

Espling 2 9 1 3 5 Allen 3 4 6

Richards 3 4 4 6 10 Gordon 4 11 14

Cyr 3 10 2 2 8 Kone 8 9 2 18

King 1 7 1 2 3 Beeson 0 2 0 0

Bossie 2 4 0 0 4 Cooke 0 0 0

Bell 0 0 0 0 0 Hurd 3 10 0 6

Sullivan 1 11 2

Sanborn 1 1 0 2

Totals 11 38 8 13 30 Totals 20 51 13 49

Caribou 7 13 23 30

Bucksport 14 25 32 49

3-pt. goals – Caribou (0-3): Cyr 0-2, Kinney 0-1; Bucksport (0-7): Hurd 0-3, Sullivan 0-3, Lanpher 0-1

JV: Caribou 28-24

Attendance: 175 (est.)