BANGOR – It was difficult to tell who was more surprised by the scoreboard through the first half of Monday night’s girls basketball showdown between once-beaten Bangor Christian and unbeaten Lee Academy.

The visiting Pandas turned what shaped up as a tight matchup between two of Eastern Maine’s top teams in Classes C and D into a rout early, scoring the first 17 points and never looking back en route to a 67-47 victory at Husson College’s Newman Gymnasium.

“In the first quarter, I couldn’t believe it. We came right out with our ‘A’ game and it was a relief because I was kind of nervous,” said Lee senior Amanda Gifford. “It was so hot in there. We were all kind of worried about that because we were kind of sick and faint in warmups.”

The only thing hotter than the gym temperature was Lee’s first-quarter shooting (52.2 percent from the field, 83.3 percent from the line) and the only people to get sick were the Patriots, who were sick of watching the Pandas turn BC turnovers into Lee points.

Lee finished the quarter almost as strongly as it started, with a 12-2 run. The Pandas never led by fewer than 20 points the rest of the game.

“We haven’t played any better than that,” said Lee coach Ron Weatherbee, whose Class C Pandas are now 6-0. “That’s as great a half as we’ve played all year, and it was all 10 of them, not just a few players.”

Patriots coach Phil Robinson admitted Lee’s lofty status (2007 Class D state champ and winner of three of the last four Eastern Maine D titles) likely psychs opponents out a bit.

“I’d like to tell you no, but yes it does,” said Robinson, whose Class D Patriots are now 6-2. “When Lee comes into a gym, if you’ve played them within the last couple years, you start off kind of psyched out and that’s been a problem for us.”

That’s music to Gifford’s ears.

“That plays to our advantage because we can see not so much that they’re scared but that they’re thinking about our pressure, and we knew if we can get into their heads that little bit, it helps us a lot,” said Gifford, who led Lee with 18 points. “Our whole point on defense is getting out there and making the other team feel scatterbrained.”

The Pandas played transition, shot, and defended BC so well, the Patriots were never really able to utilize their size advantage.

“I think they were quite a bit bigger than us. Our tallest girl is 5[-foot]-8 and they have a couple over 5-9 or so,” said senior Karin Bird, who had 14 points. “We just wanted to use our speed because most teams aren’t as quick as we are.”

The Patriots were able to outrebound Lee 38-29 overall and 15-11 on the offensive boards, but Lee held a 17-16 edge at halftime, along with a 43-14 lead.

“We talked about how we’d have to make sure we kept them off the boards and box them out,” Weatherbee said. “Our pressure bothered them and that helped, too, but we did limit them to one shot most of the time.”

The Pandas outshot BC from the field 38.7 to 34.0 percent, committed 16 turnovers (11 in second half) to BC’s 25 and had nine steals to BC’s three.

Senior guard Aarika Ritchie had 12 points and a game-high five assists, while senior forward Dana Houghton added 10 points and five rebounds.

Katie Libby led the Patriots with 16 points and six rebounds. Hannah Pray had 10 points and seven rebounds. Hope Johnson grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.

aneff@bangordailynews.net

990-8205

PANDAS 67, PATRIOTS 47

Lee Acad. (6-0) Bangor Chr. (6-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Gifford 6 15 5 6 18 Bragg 2 7 6

Harris 2 2 3 4 7 Harrison 0 0

Mallett 1 2 0 0 2 Ramirez 0 2 0

Grass 0 1 0 0 0 Holmes 0 4 0

Bird 5 7 4 7 14 Pray 5 18 0 10

Dow 1 5 0 0 2 Dillon 0 0 0 0

McLaghlin 0 8 0 0 0 Robinson 4 9

Ritchie 4 8 4 4 12 Johnson 1 4 4

Cowan 1 4 0 0 2 Simon 0 0 0

Houghton 4 10 2 2 10 Libby 4 4 16

Bean 1 2 0 2

Roman 0 0 0 0

Totals 24 62 18 23 67 Totals 17 50 11 15 47

Lee Acad. 29 43 57 67

Bangor Christian 4 14 31 47

3-pt. goals – Lee (1-3): Gifford 1-1, Dow 0-1, Bird 0-1; Bangor Christian (2-8): Libby 2-2, Bragg 0-1, Holmes 0-1, Pray 0-2, Robinson 0-2

Attendance: 150 (est.)