BANGOR – The Mount Abram girls basketball team arrived at the Bangor Auditorium Saturday night in a white limousine. They had one more passenger when they left – the gold ball for the Class C state championship.

“We wanted to come in style, and we’re going home in style,” a smiling Roadrunners center Janessa Thomas said after Mount Abram earned a 55-52 victory over defending state champion Dexter.

Thomas played a key defensive role against the Tigers’ 6-foot-6 center Mallory Ames, while Mount Abram guard Logahn Walker scored 17 points, including nine in the fourth quarter, as the 17-6 Roadrunners of Salem earned their first state title since 1991. Dexter finished at 20-2.

Mount Abram played trapping pressure defense, against Dexter’s ballhandlers and forced 24 turnovers.

“We got as much out of this group as we possibly could,” Tiger coach Jody Grant said. “Our ballhandlers are young and inexperienced. [Mount Abram] certainly came at us. At times we handled it but we gave them too many possessions.”

Forcing turnovers was all part of the Roadrunners’ plan.

“We knew that was their weak spot,” Walker said. “They’re really tough underneath so we had to put the pressure on so they wouldn’t be able to get underneath.”

Thomas scored 11 points and did a fine defensive job on Ames, who scored 18 points to go with 11 rebounds and three blocks but spent most of the second quarter on the bench after picking up her second foul – Thomas drew the foul – with 5:44 left in the half.

The Roadrunners outscored the Tigers 16-7 in the second quarter and Walker’s shot with 43 seconds left put Mount Abram up 29-27 at halftime.

Dexter’s Chelsie Chambers hit a baseline shot to tie it early in the third, but Walker’s jumper in the lane 55 seconds into the period put Mount Abram ahead for good. The Roadrunners gained some separation thanks to a 7-0 run in the third and Walker scored seven straight points with about two minutes left in the game for a 53-43 lead.

“I’m thinking to myself, at one time Dexter might put a heck of a run on us and maybe just blow us off the court,” said 21st-year Mount Abram coach Doug Lisherness “… Then it reached a point there, we did get up by seven or eight or so and you know, [I was thinking] we stand a chance of winning this.”

Ames hit her first career 3-pointer with about seven seconds remaining.

Thomas kept Ames from getting position on the low block and forced her to take some jump shots.

“We’ve been working on keeping her off the blocks and I had to keep my hands off,” Thomas said. “It was hard but it helped a lot, I think.”

Part of the reason Ames wasn’t able to set up where she wanted was that Grant had to use her against Mount Abram’s press.

“I would have liked to see her get a little deeper,” Grant said. “But when you’re asking her to come up and help out handling the ball because we’re having a difficult time breaking pressure, that takes us out of [our] comfort zone.”

Dexter’s Katie Poirier added 16 points, seven rebounds and two blocks. Mount Abram’s Kenni Norton scored 15 points.

ROADRUNNERS 55, TIGERS 52

Mount Abram (17-6) Dexter (20-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Norton 6 13 1 2 15 Ames 6 11 18

Coburn 0 1 0 0 0 Chambrs 3 5 9

Burbank 0 1 0 0 0 Gove 4 6 8

Walker 6 14 5 6 17 Burton 0 1 0

Cummings 2 3 0 0 5 Chapman 0 0 1

York 2 9 3 4 7 Poirier 8 12 0 16

Thomas 5 10 1 4 11

Totals 21 51 10 16 55 Totals 21 35 18 52

Mount Abram 13 29 41 55

Dexter 20 27 35 52

3-pt. goals – Mount Abram (3-8): Norton 2-4, Cummings 1-1, Walker 0-3; Dexter (1-1): Ames 1-1