BANGOR – For much of the night, the Penobscot Valley girls basketball team found its offense stymied by two decades worth of nervousness.

Shots wouldn’t fall, and often weren’t close.

But midway through the fourth quarter the momentum generated by the Howlers’ defense seemingly made its way to the shooters, and the resulting boost lifted No. 5 Penobscot Valley past No. 4 Stearns of Millinocket 43-40 in an Eastern Maine Class C girls basketball quarterfinal at the Bangor Auditorium for their first tournament victory in 20 years.

“This means a lot,” said PVHS senior center Kelsy Laverty. “I’ve never had this feeling before. We’re doing it for that team that won here 20 years ago, and we’re doing it for our whole town. Our whole town was here tonight.”

PVHS (15-4) will play the winner of Tuesday’s late game between Washington Academy of East Machias and Calais in a regional semifinal at 3:35 p.m. Friday.

While Penobscot Valley’s offense struggled until the final minutes, the defense was a constant. The Howlers employed a 1-3-1 defense early in the contest, then switched to a fullcourt man-to-man alignment that frustrated Stearns throughout the second half.

“After [Stearns] felt relaxed in their offense against the 1-3-1, we went into our man-to-man fullcourt deny,” said PVHS coach Joe Cyr. “If the girls didn’t want to deny they sat next to me, but they wanted to play, so they denied.”

Deny they did, as PVHS induced 35 Stearns turnovers.

“Defense is one of our strongest points,” said PVHS senior guard Morgan Cyr. “We love to play defense, we love to be aggressive.”

The Howlers, making their first tourney appearance 1989, struggled with their offense throughout the first three quarters, making just 8 of 48 field-goal tries during that span.

“We were real nervous,” said Morgan Cyr. “I could tell during warm-ups we were real shaky. We weren’t sure about the rims, and at the beginning of the game we were overshooting the basket.”

Yet PVHS trailed just 28-21 entering the final quarter, when Lavertu returned to action after sitting out most of the third period with foul trouble.

The 6-foot-senior scored after working a pick-and-roll play with Casey McCloskey to ignite a 9-0 Howlers’ run good for a 33-29 lead with 3:19 to play.

Paige Curtis hit a runner and then took a steal in for a layup as Stearns rallied to a 34-34 tie with 2:25 left.

Lavertu scored from the lane to give PVHS the lead for good at 36-34 with 2:12 to play, and Mindy Dolley hit a jumper and Cyr buried a long 3-pointer to extend the margin to 41-35 with 1:28 left.

Stearns got within 41-39 on baskets by Achorn and Curtis before McCloskey made two free throws with 50 seconds left.

An Amy Collinsworth free throw closed the gap to three before a long 3-point try by Achorn in the waning seconds fell short.

Lavertu had nine points and seven rebounds for PVHS, while Dolley and Kacey Plourde each scored seven points.

Deanna Michaud had 11 points and 10 rebounds for 13-6 Stearns, while Collinsworth had 11 points and nine rebounds.

HOWLERS 43, MINUTEMEN 40

Penobscot Valley (15-4) Stearns (13-6)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Cyr 2 8 1 4 6 Curtis 4 4 0 8

Bowers 0 2 0 0 0 Michaud 3 8 10 11

Drost 2 4 0 3 5 Rosebush 0 0

Thurlow 0 1 3 4 3 Collinswth 4 10 3 4 11

McCluskey 2 7 2 2 6 Achorn 2 6 5

Plourde 3 9 1 2 7 Leavitt 0 1 0

Lavertu 4 17 1 2 9 Lyons 0 0 0

Dolley 3 14 0 0 7 MacDnld 2 4 5

Totals 16 62 8 17 43 Totals 15 36 10 18 40

Penobscot Valley 5 14 21 43

Stearns 5 17 28 40

3-pt. goals – Penobscot Valley (3-19): Drost 1-2, Cyr 1-5, Dolley 1-8, Bowers 0-1, Plourde 0-1, McCloskey 0-2; Stearns (0-3): Achorn 0-3