BANGOR – One day before Saturday’s 49-36 Eastern Maine Class B girls basketball championship game victory over Mount Desert Island, Winslow senior Amanda Byrne went to coach J.R. Richards with a request.

Let me guard Kelsey Stratton, Byrne asked of Richards.

Not that Byrne needed to make a special request for a matchup against the Mount Desert Island forward. It only made sense to put Byrne, one of Eastern Maine’s top defensive players, on Stratton, who is one of the region’s top shooters.

And Byrne came through, defensively and offensively, at the Bangor Auditorium

The Black Raiders’ tough man-to-man defense and 50 percent shooting helped lead them to their first regional title.

Byrne held Stratton to four points and scored a game-high 18 points as Winslow, now 18-3, will face Western Maine champ Yarmouth (20-1) at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at the Augusta Civic Center.

MDI, which started the season 2-4, finished at 15-6.

Byrne, who shut down Hermon’s Cassie White in the quarterfinals and Maranacook of Readfield’s Toby Martin in the semis, knew MDI sophomore Stratton had 22 against Rockland.

“I wanted her,” Byrne said. “She wasn’t going to score 22 points on us. I’m a senior and I pretty much just didn’t want to lose.”

That left Amanda Young as the Trojans’ top shooter, and she did hit a 3-pointer in the second quarter, but Winslow’s Ashley Carter held Young to nine points. MDI center Chelsea Dow scored a team-high 10 points, but Raiders center Stephanie Bossie limited Dow to 3-for-11 shooting.

MDI coach Chip Taylor said Winslow’s speed on defense was too much.

“They’d be stupid not to put [Byrne] on Kelsey,” he said. “She’s a great defender. That, by far, was the fastest team we’ve seen all year, summer, spring, fall, winter. … Everything we did they had an answer for.”

The Trojans threw a variety of zone defenses at the Raiders, but Winslow responded with 17-for-34 shooting, including 4-for-8 from 3-point range.

“Us shooting well is not a surprise to me,” Richards said. “If you look back in our stats, when teams have played us zone, we’ve done very well. Today that worked out. We moved the ball; we were unselfish.”

Winslow had assists on 11 of their 17 field goals.

The Raiders found spots in the zone early as Byrne opened the game with a fast-break layup, then came down the floor for a 3-pointer. Bossie scored on a put-back, and two MDI turnovers later, Byrne hit another 3-pointer for a 10-2 lead.

MDI responded a bit after a timeout, but Winslow had a six-point lead at the end of the first.

The Trojans twice cut the lead to four points in the second quarter. But the Raiders went on a 6-0 run, powered by two Ashley Carter baskets and another by Brittany Morin after she stole the ball in the backcourt, for a 25-15 halftime edge.

“When we let Morin and Byrne dribble penetrate like we did, that took us out of our game,” Taylor said.

MDI was able to get inside to center Dow twice in the third quarter, but again Winslow responded with a 6-0 run sparked by a Byrne 3-pointer.

“That was huge, because [Dow] is a good player, she’s tall, and she had trouble shooting over Steph,” said Winslow point guard Brittany Morin, who had five assists.

Winslow invited former coach Jim Poulin onto the Auditorium floor during the medal ceremony. Poulin, who has multiple sclerosis and is in a wheelchair, resigned last year after 11 seasons.

BLACK RAIDERS 49, TROJANS 36

MDI (15-6) Winslow (18-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Stanley 1 4 2 2 4 Willette 0 0

Stratton 1 8 2 2 4 Byrne 6 9 18

Records 0 0 0 0 0 L. Richards 0 0

Banks 2 3 0 0 4 Morin 2 5 6

Shuster 0 1 1 2 1 Paradis 0 0 0

Hodgdon 2 2 0 0 4 Peters 0 0 0

As. Young 0 1 0 0 0 S. Pelletier 0 0

Lewis 0 2 0 0 0 Lapointe 2 5

Falt 0 3 0 0 0 Carter 3 6 2 8

Am. Young 4 6 0 0 9 Bossie 2 3 6

Dow 3 11 4 4 10 K. Pelletier 0 0 0

Staples 0 1 0 0 0 E. Richards 2 5

Boutin 0 0 1 1

Libby 0 0 0 0

Totals 13 42 9 10 36 Totals 17 34 11 16 49

MDI 8 15 23 36

Winslow 15 25 35 49

3-pt. goals – MDI (1-8): Am. Young 1-3, Lewis 0-2, Stratton 0-3; Winslow (4-8): Byrne 3-5, E. Richards 1-2, Morin 0-1