BANGOR – The Lee Academy girls basketball team made a successful debut in the Eastern Maine Class C tournament Tuesday afternoon.

The second-seeded Pandas, winners of two state Class D championships over the past three years, parlayed their speed, athleticism and full-court 1-2-2 press into an impressive 85-53 victory over seventh seed Narraguagus of Harrington at the Bangor Auditorium.

Lee, now 16-3, will face No. 3 Washington Academy of East Machias, 15-3, in Friday’s 7:05 p.m. semifinal. The Raiders eliminated No. 6 Calais 46-42.

Narraguagus wound up 11-8.

The Pandas used a 17-2 run in the second period, featuring 11 points and two assists from senior forward Karin Bird, to build a 41-17 lead and they led by at least 18 the rest of the way.

“We couldn’t match up with their size so we had to run the ball and get our press going,” said Bird, who finished with 22 points and six assists, both game-highs, along with six rebounds.

The Pandas created numerous turnovers with their smothering press and Bird said those turnovers fueled their transition game.

“They have a lot of speed and they play incredible defense,” said Narraguagus senior forward Courtney Foss, who had 11 points and six rebounds.

“They’re twice as fast as we were,” said Narraguagus coach Chris Burke.

The senior-laden Pandas also transformed their quickness into a lot of second-chance points as they tenaciously attacked the offensive boards.

Dana Houghton scored 16 points and also contributed six rebounds and three steals for the Pandas. Laci McLaughlin had 13 points and Aarika Ritchie chipped in with 11 points, a game-high 11 rebounds and five assists.

Ritchie scored her 1,00th career point in the third quarter, joining Bird in the 1,000-point club.

Kimberly Greene’s 12 points paced the Lady Knights. Foss had six rebounds to go with her 11 points. Six-foot-two sophomore center Andrea Perry had 10 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.

Lee Academy shot 52.3 percent from the floor (34-for-65) and 82.4 percent from the foul line (14-for-17).

In the first game, Washington Academy fought off a stubborn Calais team and some bad tourney memories to earn its third victory in four games against the Blue Devils this season.

Guard Kayla Wood, one of just three seniors playing in the game – all for WA – scored 19 points and Washington Academy used a trapping 1-3-1 defense to force 19 Calais turnovers, 13 in the first half as the Raiders built a sizeable lead.

“We never play zone,” said WA coach Gary Wood. “We haven’t played zone probably three minutes all year, if that. We don’t even play it in practice. We’re a man-to-man team, but Calais runs its offense well and they kill us underneath because we’re so small, so we thought mixing it up and going to a zone would kind of take their inside game away a little bit, and it worked for us today.”

WA also rebounded fairly effectively out of the zone, as the taller Calais squad managed just a 30-29 edge on the boards.

“Our pressure defense and not letting them get it inside were keys,” said Kayla Wood, “and we rebounded well for our small size. When we rebound well, we fast-break and that’s when we play our best because we get easy layups.”

This was a rematch of a 2007 quarterfinal, when No. 8 Calais knocked off the top-seeded Raiders. But Washington Academy (15-3) never trailed in this return encounter after senior guard Carilla Fritz made a scoop shot from the lane to give the Raiders a 6-5 edge with 4:08 left in the first period.

That basket started an 18-2 run fueled by WA forcing numerous turnovers from the seniorless Blue Devils, who finished the season with an 11-9 record.

Wood scored 10 points in the first quarter as WA moved out to an 18-7 lead, and the Raiders maintained a 28-16 halftime cushion despite shooting just 2 of 14 from the field in the second quarter.

The Raiders took a 39-27 lead into the fourth quarter, but Calais fought back behind guard Courtney Hill and pulled within 39-32 on a layup by Tessa Clark with 4:39 left.

“I started just thinking about last year and when they just came back,” said Fritz, “but I was like, ‘We’re not going to let them do it this year. It’s our senior year, we’re going to win.'”

And the seniors came up big, with Wood scoring on a drive and Fritz making two free throws to increase WA’s lead to 43-32 with 1:42 left.

“We turned the ball over at crucial times and got behind,” said Calais coach Bob McShane. “We don’t get a lot of points off our pressure, so we have to stay close. We dug that hole early and played catch-up, but we just came up short.”

Hill led Calais with 14 points, while Clark scored 10 and Osborne had nine points and 10 rebounds.

bdnsports@bangordailynews.net

RAIDERS 46, BLUE DEVILS 42

Calais (11-9) Wash. Acad. (15-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Hill 5 18 1 3 14 Espling 0 0 0 0

Morrison 1 2 0 0 3 Nicely 2 3 6

Karvia 0 1 0 0 0 Seeley 1 4 3

Clark 4 7 0 0 10 Flannery 3 10 2 3 8

Hollngdale 0 1 0 0 0 Wood 7 20 19

Cross 0 7 1 2 1 Fritz 2 6 8

W.Rmngtn 0 0 0 0 0 Price 1 1 2

McVicar 2 9 0 0 5

Beaton 0 3 0 0 0

Osborne 4 7 1 3 9

Totals 16 55 3 8 42 Totals 16 44 11 23 46

Calais 7 16 27 42

Washington Acad. 18 28 39 46

3-pt. goals – Calais (7-22): Hill 3-10, Clark 2-4, Morrison 1-1, McVicar 1-5, Cross 0-2; Washington Acad. (3-9): Wood 2-7, Nicely 1-2

PANDAS 85, KNIGHTS 53

Narraguagus (11-8) Lee Academy (16-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Foss 5 11 1 2 11 Gifford 4 8 0 8

Greene 4 10 2 2 12 Harris 3 4 7

Baker 1 5 0 0 3 Bird 8 12 22

Tenan 2 4 0 2 4 Ritchie 4 12 11

Perry 4 17 2 3 10 Houghton 6 11 4 4 16

K. Burke 3 5 2 2 8 McLghlin 5 10 3 3 13

Beal 1 3 0 0 3 Grass 2 4 0 4

Albee 1 1 0 0 2 McGaw 0 1 0

Risbridger 0 2 0 0 0 Mallett 2 3 4

Nevells 0 0 0 0 0 Dow 0 1 0

B. Burke 0 1 0 0 0

Brooks 0 0 0 0 0

Schrader 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 21 59 7 11 53 Totals 34 66 14 17 85

Narraguagus 13 21 36 53

Lee Academy 23 41 63 85

3-pt. goals – Narraguagus (4-8): Greene 2-3, Baker 1-1, Beal 1-1, Risbridger 0-1, Perry 0-2; Lee Academy (3-12): Bird 2-4, Harris 1-2, Houghton 0-1, Gifford 0-2, Ritchie 0-3