BANGOR – The Skowhegan girls basketball team learned a valuable lesson in Saturday morning’s Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal – the Indians can win without Bethany Sevey or Nicole Paradis.

Of course, both of Skowhegan’s standout guards contributed in the No. 2 Indians’ 46-26 victory over No. 7 Oxford Hills at the Bangor Auditorium. But it’s nice for the squad to know that if the opposition’s defense is too much – as was the case with the zone played by the Vikings of South Paris – someone else can take over.

That someone was senior Jessica Abbott, who scored 10 points in the second quarter as Skowhegan pulled away, and finished with 12 points to lead the Indians to Thursday’s 7:05 p.m. semifinal against No. 6 Nokomis of Newport.

Skowhegan (17-2) did get a balanced scoring effort as Sevey and Paradis combined for 10 points and Megan Franklin chipped in with nine to go with seven rebounds.

“The best part about the basketball game was that the kids who contributed off the bench were really a spark for us,” coach Heath Cowan said.

Abbott hit five of her six shots in the second quarter, including two in the final 21/2 minutes of the period, to give the Indians a 22-15 halftime lead.

“I usually come off the bench and I just had a good game,” Abbott said. “Their weak side was open a lot and I just happened to be there at the right time, I guess.”

The Vikings (14-6) got frustrated in the second half, coach Craig Jipson said, and Skowhegan responded at the free-throw line by going 6 for 10 in the fourth quarter.

Jipson was pleased with the defensive effort that shut down the two Indian guards and limited Skowhegan from getting into its dangerous fast-break game.

“To hold a team like that in the 40s, you hope you’d be in the game,” Jipson said. “We ran our zone extremely well, made them take a lot of time off the clock in the first half and that’s what we wanted.”

Oxford Hills had 19 turnovers in the first half.

INDIANS 46, VIKINGS 26

Oxford Hills (14-6) Skowhegan (17-2)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Ka. Pelletier 3 6 1 2 8 Saydjarin 4

Herrick 0 1 0 0 0 Paradis 0 7 3

Sunderland 0 0 0 0 0 Sevey 3 12 7

Thompson 1 3 0 0 2 Franklin 2 10 9

Foster 1 3 2 2 5 LaGross 1 4 4

Moccia 0 1 0 0 0 Abbott 6 9 12

Bowden 1 11 2 3 4 Matchitt 0 0

Martin 0 1 0 0 0 Miller 0 2 0

Fox 0 2 1 4 1 Veinotte 0 0 0

Bunce 0 1 0 0 0 Ames 0 0 1

Ke. Pelletier 2 14 1 3 6 Smith 3 6

Cole 0 1 0 0 0 Evans 0 0 0 0

Brett 0 2 0 0 0 Pinkham 0 0 0

Atkinson 0 0 0

Totals 8 46 7 14 26 Totals 16 52 13 24 46

Oxford Hills 6 15 23 26

Skowhegan 9 22 31 46

3-pt. goals – Oxford Hills (3-14): Foster 1-2, Ka. Pelletier 1-3, Ke. Pelletier 1-7, Bunce 0-1, Brett 0-1; Skowhegan (1-8): Sevey 1-4, Paradis 0-4