HERMON – The last time the John Bapst and Hermon girls basketball teams squared off, Ashley Kelley torched the stingy Crusaders defense for 27 points.

The result was vastly different this time.

Kelley, one of the top scorers in the Big East, suffered a knee injury in the first quarter, and the Hawks’ lack of an inside game was exploited as the Crusaders of Bangor ran away with a 54-24 victory on Senior Night at the high school gym.

John Bapst avenged an earlier 56-43 defeat to the Hawks.

Kelley went down 23 seconds into the game, came back in at the 3:46 mark only to hobble off about a minute later, and did not return.

It was all downhill from there for the Hawks (13-4), who were outscored 20-4 in the second quarter as the 16-1 Crusaders blazed out to a 26-9 advantage at the half.

“It was a big change of game play,” said forward Hillary Laferriere. “She’s an amazing player. Not having her in there, the whole game just shifted.”

Without Kelley in the lineup, the Hawks could not generate inside penetration against the bigger Crusaders, and were forced into taking contested shots while being dominated on the glass.

“With [Kelley] not on the floor it’s a different basketball game, there’s no question,” Bapst coach Mike Webb said.

The veteran coach was quick to give his defensive corps credit. The Crusaders held the Hawks to 10-of-50 (20 percent) shooting from the floor.

“We’ve been playing pretty good defense the last four, five games,” Webb said. “I’m going to give our kids some credit, we’ve been playing pretty good defense.”

Bapst switched its defensive schemes from straight man to a 2-3 zone frequently, playing mostly zone once Kelley left the game.

“When Kelley was in we were just going to collapse on the inside and not let her get the ball,” said Laferriere, who finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds, both game highs.

“We just let them shoot until they started making it. Once they did, we started playing out,” added Laferriere.

After the sluggish start offensively, Bapst cranked up its inside game while outrebounding the Hawks 25-17 on the game.

“That’s usually our game plan, try to get it into the post,” Webb said. “Our guards take care of the basketball, get it inside, then opens up our outside game as well.”

Senior guard Eve Jordan, who was a force defensively with four steals to go with her 12 points, converted a four-point play with one second remaining in the half to cap Bapst’s rally.

The Crusaders cruised from there while passing the first of two road tests they’ll face in this last week of the regular season.

“We’d really like to stay No. 2 [in the Heal points],” said Webb, whose club travels to Caribou on Friday.

“We’ve got a very tough game Friday against Caribou, they’re a very good basketball team,” added Webb.

Emily Berglund led the Hawks with six points.

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CRUSADERS 54, HAWKS 24

John Bapst (16-1) Hermon (13-4)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Jordan 3 8 5 7 12 Veilleux 2 4

Chasse 3 7 4 6 10 Woodard 0 2 0

Myerowitz 1 2 0 0 2 Berglund 2 6

Hayden 0 0 2 2 2 Durgin 2 4 5

Hardy 2 7 3 4 7 Keith 1 10 3

Moriarty 0 0 0 0 0 A. Kelley 0 0

Maquillan 0 0 0 0 0 Ross 1 3 2

Estes 1 2 2 2 4 Barry 1 2 2

Boyle 0 0 0 0 0 Bryant 0 3 0

Gormley 1 1 0 1 2 Hall 0 0 0

Nelson 0 0 0 0 0 Beers 0 0 0

Laferriere 6 9 3 7 15 Arnold 0 11 0

M. Kelley 1 2 2

Totals 17 36 19 29 54 Totals 10 50 10 24

John Bapst 6 26 34 54

Hermon 5 9 18 24

3-pt. goals – John Bapst (1-1): Jordan 1-1; Hermon (1-7): Durgin 1-3, Arnold 0-1, Veilleux 0-1, Berglund 0-1, Keith 0-1

JV: Hermon 38-23

Attendance: 650 (est.)