BANGOR – No matter the ups and downs of the Nokomis girls basketball team since it won the Eastern Maine Class A title in 2003, the Warriors can always count on playing stellar man-to-man defense.

A couple of key defensive plays down the stretch and a big Kelley Paradis basket against Bangor Tuesday night, and Nokomis was on its way to an accomplishment it hadn’t achieved since that title season.

Paradis wound up with 17 points, including the eventual game-winning basket, as Nokomis earned a 47-46 victory over the Rams.

It was the Warriors’ first win at Red Barry Gymnasium since the 2002-03 season, according to Nokomis coach Earl Anderson.

“It’s a tough place to win,” he said. “[Bangor] is a good team, good coach, good players.”

But Tuesday, the Warriors had enough to move to 3-1 while Bangor fell to 2-2 despite a late rally.

Allie Clukey led the Rams with 12 points, including a 3-pointer with about 50 seconds remaining that cut Nokomis’ lead to one point.

After a series of fouls, missed shots and turnovers, Clukey drew an offensive foul on Nokomis senior Teresa Cooper with 13.1 seconds remaining.

Bangor got the ball to guard Emily Heath on the final possession of the game, but her driving shot on the left baseline hit the bottom of the backboard.

Cooper grabbed the rebound as time expired.

“A defensive possession isn’t a good one until you get the rebound,” Anderson said. “She closed the defensive possession with a really good defensive rebound. I was really happy with that. We were a little down, and Teresa was a little down, because we had that turnover. I went after them and they really responded.”

The Rams were hoping Heath could get the ball to forward Tawnya Godinez down the middle or set a screen for guard Amy Hackett – two of Bangor’s headiest players – but the Rams had a little more than 13 seconds on the clock to get off a shot. They talked about it during a Nokomis 30-second timeout.

“Obviously that wasn’t the shot we wanted,” Bangor coach Tom Tennett said. “I just thought that the kids played hard and Nokomis played hard. We knew it was going to be a close game. It always is. We did a better job defensively after the first part of that game but we just made a couple of mistakes.”

The Warriors kept the Rams off-balance all game with Paradis guarding Hackett (eight points) and Tatum Welch staying with Godinez (four points), who has been a dangerous matchup on the perimeter.

Tennett, in turn, was pleased with the defensive effort on the 5-11 Welch, who scored five of her nine points at the free-throw line. Bangor, which typically plays zone defense, went to man Tuesday.

Clukey gave the Rams a chance, but junior point guard Paradis sealed it for the Warriors.

With the offense spread out to kill time, Paradis was looking for an option on offense.

“We were trying to keep the ball up top,” Cooper said. “We emptied the post just to try to stall a little bit.”

Instead, Paradis took it in herself for a layup with 1:17 remaining to make it 47-43, providing a 1-point cushion Nokomis after Clukey’s 3-pointer.

“We were looking for layups or the last shot,” Paradis said.

Paradis went 7-for-11 from the floor and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds. The late basket was her only field goal of the second half as Hackett stepped up her defense.

Heath and Hackett each added eight points for the Rams, who got back into the game after Nokomis took a 12-5 lead late in the first quarter.

The Rams were within five points at halftime. Two Clukey free throws cut the lead to 33-29 in the third, although Nokomis took an 8-point lead at the end of the quarter.

A Hackett basket off a Heath pass with 2:06 remaining made it 45-43 but Paradis followed with her winner.

WARRIORS 47, RAMS 46

Nokomis (3-1) Bangor (2-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Paradis 7 11 0 0 17 B. Hacktt 2 4

Lieberman 0 0 3 4 3 Heath 3 7 8

Lincoln 2 3 1 2 7 A. Hacktt 4 11 0 0 8

K.Batchldr 1 2 0 0 3 Hartley 2 5 6

A. Wyman 0 0 0 0 0 Clukey 4 5 12

Cooper 3 10 2 5 8 Comstock 1 2

Welch 2 10 5 6 9 Godinez 2 4 4

Wadleigh 1 5 2

Totals 15 36 11 17 47 Totals 19 42 46

Nokomis 12 28 39 47

Bangor 7 23 31 46

3-pt. goals – Nokomis (6-8): Paradis 3-3, Lincoln 2-2, K. Batchelder 1-1, Cooper 0-2; Bangor (2-4): Heath 1-2, Clukey 1-1, Godinez 0-1

JV: Bangor 31-25

Attendance: 200 (est.)