BANGOR – It has been a season of highs and lows, both on and off the court, for the Bangor girls basketball team.

The No. 8 Rams will go into the Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinals on a high thanks to Amy Hackett’s game-winning basket with 20 seconds left and game-high 19 points in Tuesday’s 51-46 preliminary-round victory over No. 9 Edward Little.

Now, Bangor hopes it won’t follow with another low. Tuesday’s win sets up a rematch with No. 1 Messalonskee of Oakland (17-1), which beat the Rams (9-10) twice in two close regular-season games, at 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Augusta Civic Center.

“It’s been a tough year in a lot of ways,” Bangor coach Tom Tennett said of the Rams’ inconsistency on the court and the death of a team member’s father earlier this season. “I’m just so pleased with how they’ve come together.”

It was tough going for Hackett, who was faced with Edward Little’s matchup zone defense designed to keep her and forward Tawnya Godinez from getting too many good looks.

“We worked on the zone in practice but we didn’t know quite what to expect. But we started to figure it out,” Hackett said. “I think we did OK with it.”

Hackett, a junior guard, went 8-for-22 from the floor, but she was perfect when the Rams needed clutch shots.

About 20 seconds after EL’s Brittney French hit a turnaround jumper in the lane to give the Eddies a 46-45 lead, Hackett banked in a leaning jump shot from the left side to put Bangor up for good.

Hackett iced it when she went in uncontested for a basket with two seconds remaining, but Allie Clukey ensured the win with the defensive play of the game.

After Hackett’s winner, the Eddies brought the ball to halfcourt where Clukey, who serves as a huge defensive spark off the bench, was playing at the top of Bangor’s 1-3-1 zone. She tapped the ball away from the offense with about 12 seconds remaining.

“[Coach] always tells me to get the steal,” Clukey said. “That’s my role. I just try to do it every time. Sometimes I get one, sometimes I don’t. Tonight I got lucky, I guess.”

Clukey was fouled with 7.6 seconds left, putting the Rams in the double bonus. She sank both her free throws for a 49-46 edge.

Edward Little then turned over the ball again when a long pass was thrown out of bounds, setting up Emily Heath’s long inbounds pass to an unguarded Hackett for the final basket.

Clukey also scored on a fast break after she grabbed a rebound that gave Bangor a 1-point lead with 1:48 left.

“She had so many key plays,” Tennett said. “She’s kind of like a little cobra. She stands there and waits and eventually she makes some plays. She’s just able to judge the other team and what they’re able to do.”

Godinez added 15 points, including a key 3-point play with 3:10 remaining that put the Rams into the bonus at the free-throw line and cut EL’s lead to 41-40.

“That was huge, and it was on an offensive rebound,” Tennett said. “We really had to get on the offensive glass tonight.”

French, who averaged a team-best 16.1 points per game this season, scored 13. Kelsey Nicolas, who averaged 11.5 ppg, finished with six.

Kristen Prue and Allison Forgues, who combined to go 6-for-14 from 3-point range, scored 11 and 10, respectively.

“We have young kids who threw the ball away a couple of times but I just couldn’t be happier with the kids,” EL coach Craig Jipson said. “We had a lot of our kids in foul trouble but we had other kids step up.”

RAMS 51, RED EDDIES 46

Edward Little (11-8) Bangor (9-10)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Nicolas 3 8 0 2 6 B.Hackett 0 0

Forgues 3 11 1 2 10 Heath 1 6 4

Paul 0 0 0 0 0 A.Hackett 8 22 19

St. Hilaire 1 4 0 0 2 Smith 2 2 4

Levesque 1 2 0 0 2 Wadleigh 1 2

Cummings 0 0 0 0 0 Clukey 1 7 5

Leary 0 0 0 0 0 Comstock 1 2

Prue 4 6 0 0 11 Godinez 5 10 5 15

Gaylord 0 0 0 0 0

Downs 1 1 0 0 2

French 6 12 1 1 13

Totals 19 44 2 5 46 Totals 19 50 12 16 51

Edward Little 12 21 31 46

Bangor 13 25 32 51

3-pt. goals – Edward Little (6-14): Prue 3-5, Forgues 3-9; Bangor (1-7): Heath 1-6, B. Hackett 0-1

Attendance: 300 (est.)