Eastern Maine Class C girls basketball got a shakeup this weekend as two teams picked up their first losses of the season and the team at the top of last week’s Heal points went down.

Old foes Central of Corinth and Dexter met, with the Red Devils earning their first win over the previously undefeated Tigers, a 46-45 victory, in what could be at least 10 years.

Fort Kent, which moved from Class B to Class C this year, rolled over Stearns of Millinocket 57-49. The Minutemen hadn’t lost a game entering Friday’s contest.

And defending Class D state champ Lee earned a 67-64 victory Washington Academy of East Machias, which had the No. 1 ranking in last week’s Eastern Maine Class C Heal point rankings.

For the two Class C winners, the weekend could mean major Heal points. And it showed that the classification is as wide-open as ever.

“It’s like a hodgepodge with everybody competing against everybody every night,” said Fort Kent coach Travis Delisle. “We feel as a team that if we give ourselves a chance and play good ball, that we can probably compete with anybody in Class C.”

Central coach Diane Rollins figures her team’s win was its first against Dexter in about a decade. The Tigers (7-1) had a 72-game regular-season winning streak. Their last overall loss was to Dirigo of Dixfield in the 2005 Class C state final; before that their previous loss was to the Cougars in the 2003 title game.

The win came just hours after the squad attended a funeral for the grandfather of standout forward Caitlin Elliott.

Elliott, whom Rollins has deemed the Devils’ go-to player this year, scored just three points against the Tigers.

Kim LeBlanc (14 points) and Theresa Libby (12 points) picked up for Elliott.

“The other kids came alive,” Rollins said. “I thought, Caitlin’s not on, what are we going to do? So it was so nice to see Kim and Theresa step up.”

Central (7-2) played a triangle-and-2 defense for most of the game – as they did in a previous game against Dexter – but started in a 1-3-1 zone in an effort to throw off the Tigers a bit.

Rollins credited guard Traci Underhill with defending Dexter guard Sabrina Cote, who got into foul trouble. Both players finished with eight points.

“I don’t know how she did it for 32 minutes,” Rollins said. “I had her out maybe twice and they were for short periods of time at the end of quarters. She just seemed to have the stamina that night. She really controlled things.”

To defend 6-foot-6 center Mallory Ames, the Devils sandwiched her between LeBlanc and Elliott.

Fort Kent’s win over Stearns (now 9-1) came four days after a 62-45 loss to undefeated Class B Presque Isle. The Warriors hated to go down to the Wildcats, but they learned a lot in the loss because of the way they handed Presque Isle’s full-court press and perimeter shooting.

“We wanted to beat Presque Isle. But we really went there looking to give ourselves a chance to win, and we did that,” Delisle said. “That was a huge boost for us. So when we played Stearns we said, they’re a lot alike. We’re not going to change anything.”

What the Warriors (6-5) worked on for the Presque Isle – and therefore the Stearns game, too – was a press breaker that involved inbounder Marissa Albert getting the ball to 6-foot forward Kristin Violette.

Violette finished with 20 points, 15 rebounds and four steals.

“She did an excellent job,” Delisle said. “To be honest, the five times we turned over the basketball in the full court, every time was when we didn’t give Kristin a first touch.”

Fort Kent’s defensive standout was freshman guard Emily Pelletier. Late in the third quarter Delisle put Pelletier on Stearns guard Hilary Arsenault, who is one of Stearns’ best shooters.

“We all felt that the key was our freshman guard on their guard,” Delisle said. “Emily really came in and played hard-nosed defense all the time around her.”

Things continue to get interesting in Class C this week. Central and Stearns play Monday, Stearns and Dexter meet Friday and Central will host Fort Kent Saturday.

Cony-Bangor draws Blodgett

Former Lawrence of Fairfield and University of Maine star Cindy Blodgett was in the stands at Cony High in Augusta Monday for a Class A girls basketball game between Bangor and Cony.

Now an assistant coach at Brown University, Blodgett was watching Cony junior guard Cassie Cooper. A second-team All-Maine player last year, Cooper has said she is considering the University of Maine, Brown or Harvard for her next step.

Coaches from Harvard and Colby were also at the game.

Blodgett played for Cooper’s father, Bruce Cooper, when he coached at Lawrence.

It’s a lot of pressure to put on high schoolers, Cony coach Paul Vachon said.

“Right now, that’s one of our biggest problems. These kids as sophomores and juniors, I feel for them,” he said. “We talked about it, said that [Cooper] should just go play and not worry about [coaches watching her]. And I thought this was her most well-rounded game, passing, scoring and rebounding.”

Cony won the game 53-41.

Paradis heading to USM

Skowhegan point guard Nicole Paradis will take her talents to the University of Southern Maine next year.

The All-Maine honorable mention and two-time Eastern Maine Class A all-tourney team member committed to play basketball for the Huskies last month.

The USM women, who are coached by Gary Fifield, are currently ranked No. 1 in the USA Today/ESPN/WBCA Division III Top 25 Coaches Poll.

“He sent me all the stuff about that,” the 5-5 Paradis said after scoring 11 points in a 64-55 win over Bangor Friday night. “I’m really excited to go.”

Paradis was averaging eight points and three assists per game before Friday’s win. She was also shooting 80 percent from the free-throw line.

She was also considering Southern New Hampshire and Maine Maritime but wants to major in health fitness, which isn’t offered by either school.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.