BANGOR – In the moments before they took the floor for Saturday afternoon’s Eastern Maine Class B championship pregame warmups, the members of the Waterville girls basketball team gathered for a pep talk in a hallway off the Bangor Auditorium floor.

“Last year [in the semifinals], nothing went our way really,” said Waterville sophomore center Morgan Frame. “This year we came out, we got into this little hallway, we were psyching ourselves up, talking about how excited we were. And then on the court we were all saying, get back what we deserve, get back what we deserve. That was really motivational.”

The Panthers fed off that intensity early. They rolled out to a big lead and battled to a 63-46 victory and their first Eastern Maine Class B title against No. 2 John Bapst of Bangor.

Waterville, now 21-0, will make its first state title appearance since 1985, when the program was in Class A. The Panthers will meet Western Maine champion Lake Region of Naples in Friday’s 7 p.m. state title game at Portland’s Cumberland County Civic Center.

This year’s EM title game was a rematch of a 2006 semifinal in which the Crusaders (18-3) slowed down the tempo and beat Waterville.

This time around, the Panthers would have none of that. Bapst had five turnovers in the first five minutes and Waterville took a 15-1 lead when the 5-foot-11 Frame put back an offensive rebound with 4:17 left in the first.

“We didn’t take care of the basketball, we didn’t rebound the basketball. That’s how they got out and ran,” Bapst coach Mike Webb said. “… We started flatfooted. I don’t think we played very good defense, we didn’t box out, and still we came back and gave them a little bit of a game. I’m proud of my girls. They worked really hard. We got outplayed tonight.”

Frame scored eight of her game-high 14 points in the first quarter and junior guard Sarah Given put in 11 of her 13 points in the first. The Panthers had a 20-point lead two minutes into the second quarter.

“Absolutely, the start was a dream for us, to be able to come out like that,” said Waterville coach Ted Rioux. “That’s something we wanted. We wanted to get a quick start … make them run and up and down the floor because we know in transition we’re very, very good.”

Bapst made a 9-0 run, however, during which Waterville’s only senior, guard Liz Bell, was issued a technical foul. Crusader senior Lauren Nichols responded with two free throws and John Bapst eventually cut the lead to 12 points.

Foul trouble plagued both teams. Bapst center Hillary Laferriere played limited minutes overall because she picked up her third foul with 1:05 left in the first quarter. Frame spent the second quarter on the bench with two fouls and Given was issued her third foul 2:11 before halftime.

The Crusaders made a 7-0 third-quarter run, but Bapst couldn’t stay in it without Laferriere, who fouled out midway through the third quarter, and Nichols, who was gone early in the fourth.

Free-throw shooting was dismal for both teams. The Panthers and Crusaders combined to go 27-for-54 from the line.

PANTHERS 63, CRUSADERS 46

John Bapst (18-3) Waterville (21-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Jordan 3 13 3 8 9 Gardiner 4 8

Moriarty 0 0 0 0 0 Sta.Wttn 0 0

Nichols 4 9 4 5 12 Bell 2 2 8

Andrle 1 2 2 3 4 Nale 1 7 4

Maquillan 3 6 1 4 9 M.Frame 6 12 14

Estes 0 1 0 0 0 Smith 2 2 5

Gormley 0 2 0 0 0 Given 4 10 13

Laferriere 3 5 0 3 6 Ste.Wttn 4 11

McGuan 3 12 0 1 6

Totals 17 50 10 24 46 Totals 23 47 17 30 63

John Bapst 8 21 32 46

Waterville 26 36 48 63

3-pt. goals – John Bapst (2-15): Maquillan 2-5, McGuan 0-4, Jordan 0-6; Waterville (0-5): Gardiner 0-1, Ste. Whitten 0-1, Given 0-3