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BANGOR – The Waterville girls basketball team went into its locker room for halftime of Saturday’s Eastern Maine Class B final and got an earful from coach Ted Rioux. On the way out, Jennifer Nale got some words of advice from teammate Sarah Given.
Rioux’s tough talk and Given’s more gentle manner worked for the top-ranked and undefeated Panthers, who rallied from a three-point halftime deficit for a 60-40 victory over No. 3 Mattanawcook of Lincoln at the Bangor Auditorium.
Waterville will get a rematch in the Class B state final as the Panthers go up against Lake Region of Naples, whom they beat 52-51 in the 2007 title game. Waterville (21-0) and the Lakers (19-2) play at 7:05 p.m. Friday at the Bangor Auditorium.
Rioux’s problem with the Panthers in the first half? Waterville let the Lynx take a 29-26 lead and went 6-for-6 from 3-point range.
“I let them know that Waterville does not give up 29 points in a half, that they had better find their pride and better find what got them here real quick,” Rioux said of his halftime speech. “[An] 11-point second half [is] more to our liking as a team.”
The Panthers had a much better second half.
Morgan Frame, last year’s tourney MVP, led the Panthers with 18 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots. It was Nale, however, who sparked Waterville, which encountered just its second halftime deficit of the season.
Given told Nale, simply, to “have fun” going into the third quarter.
“… That’s what I did,” Nale said. “And I loosened up, and I got shots in the flow of the offense and it was a big turnaround for me personally and I think getting those two [3-pointers] back to back, it was a big turnaround for the team.”
The Lynx had a three-point halftime lead thanks to the outside shooting of Michelle Paul, Brooke Hanscom and Katelyn DeRaps, who scorched Waterville from the perimeter.
It was deja vu for the Panthers, who nearly lost to MA last year in the semifinals on a Paul 3-point attempt in the final seconds.
“They just have such tremendous shooters,” Nale said. “If you are not right up in their face, they’re going to hit those 3s. So we came out in the second half and we adjusted, and I think that was the big change.”
Waterville shut down Mattanawcook in the second half with switches between man and zone defenses.
MA was ahead 33-30 when Waterville rallied, cutting the lead to 35-34. Kayla Smith put back a rebound and Nale hit two 3-pointers in the final 50 seconds of the third quarter to give the Panthers a 42-35 lead.
Waterville used a 13-0 run in the fourth to pull away.
“Turnovers, missed shots, a couple of layups that we missed,” MA coach Brian McDormand said. “We went down the other way, lost our assignments defensively and they hit a couple of open shots. … We lost [Nale] and it was unfortunate because she made a good spurt there. That’s how they are. They’re electric.”
Brianna Hanscom and DeRaps led the Lynx with 11 points apiece. Paul finished with eight, all in the first half.
jbloch@bangordailynews.net
990-8193
PANTHERS 60, LYNX 40
Mattanawcook (19-3) Waterville (21-0)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Piche 0 0 0 0 0 Sta.Whitn 0 0
Gardner 0 0 0 0 0 Gardiner 2 7
Bri.Hnscm 5 12 1 3 11 Ste.Wttn 2 7
Bro.Hnscm 2 4 2 4 7 Nale 3 11 13
Nicastro 0 1 0 0 0 Hart 1 2 2
Libbey 1 1 0 0 3 Smith 2 3 4
DeRaps 4 8 0 0 11 Given 2 6 9
M. Paul 2 11 2 2 8 Bishop 0 0 0
A. Paul 0 0 0 0 0 M. Frame 6 16 6 7 18
Anderson 0 1 0 0 0
Hawkins 0 0 0 0 0
Burleigh 0 2 0 0 0
Nesin 0 3 0 0 0
Totals 14 43 5 9 40 Totals 18 52 18 25 60
Mattanawcook 15 29 35 40
Waterville 20 26 42 60
3-pt. goals – Mattanawcook (7-13): DeRaps 3-4, M. Paul 2-4, Bro. Hanscom 1-3, Libbey 1-1, Nicastro 0-1; Waterville (6-20): Gardiner 2-3, Given 2-4, Nale 2-8, Smith 0-1, Sta. Whitten 0-2, Ste. Whitten 0-2
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