BANGOR – Almost one month after suffering a disappointing loss to Messalonskee, the Bangor girls basketball team picked up a big win over the Eagles of Oakland.

Seniors Allie Clukey and Brooke Hackett each tossed in 18 points to power the Rams to a 63-53 victory at Red Barry Gymnasium Tuesday night.

It should be a Heal point-worthy win for Bangor, which was 2.47 points ahead of Messalonskee in the standings released Tuesday morning. The Rams, now 12-3, were sitting in sixth place while the Eagles, now 8-7, were in seventh.

“We wanted this one really, really bad,” Hackett said. “It was a really important game for us.”

The Rams placed four starters in double figures as sophomore Meagan Doucette added 15 points and senior Amy Hackett had 10.

Bangor went 24-for-45 (53.3 percent) from the field – even better than they had hoped after poor shooting in the teams’ first matchup, a 45-44 Eagles win on Jan. 3.

“When we went down there we couldn’t make a layup,” said Brooke Hackett. “We figured if we made at least 50 percent of our layups [Tuesday] we’d be fine. We’ve been improving every game, I think because we’re getting used to playing with each other now.”

Bangor’s defense was just as impressive as its offense.

The Rams played a 1-3-1 zone the entire game with Clukey on top, and Amy Hackett and Doucette on the wings to shut down Messalonskee’s 3-point shooters.

The Eagles won the first meeting on a 3-pointer with nine seconds left.

“We tried to pressure everywhere, pressure the point and the wings, dig on the post,” Clukey said. “We all came together and really did that well.”

The Eagles made three of their 14 attempts from behind the arc and were 17-for-55 overall.

Messalonskee coach Brenda Beckwith said the Eagles haven’t played against a lot of 1-3-1 this season.

“For us to see a 1-3-1, even though we’ve been preparing for this, we’re not comfortable seeing it,” she said. “And we did not do a good job of rebounding to get them out of the zone. Bangor does a nice job defensively with that.”

Bangor had a slim 35-32 rebounding advantage, but the Rams got several quick defensive boards to set up fast breaks on the other end.

Messalonskee did manage to cut Bangor’s eight-point halftime lead to 33-27 when Hannah Dexter drained one of her two 3-pointers.

But the Rams quickly got the lead back to 10 points as Clukey stole the ball and made a layup, followed by a Brooke Hackett basket off a Clukey pass. Messalonskee couldn’t get closer than seven points in the fourth.

Doucette had seven points in the second quarter after the Eagles opened that frame with five unanswered points.

Dexter led Messalonskee with 18 points. Kaitlyn Deering and Jessica Bridges added 13 and 10 points, respectively.

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

990-8193

RAMS 63, EAGLES 53

Messalonskee (8-7) Bangor (12-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Perry 1 6 0 0 2 B.Hackett 7 14 4 7 18

Stacey 0 2 0 0 0 Roberts 0 0 0

Busque 0 1 0 0 0 Tocci 0 1 0

Dexter 5 15 6 8 18 A.Hackett 4 10

Tinsman 0 2 0 0 0 Frednbrgr 0 0

Bridges 3 11 3 4 10 Doucette 6 15

Oliver 2 6 1 2 5 Wadleigh 0 0

Deering 4 9 5 5 13 Sivik 0 0 0

Haiss 2 3 1 5 5 Curtis 0 0 0

Clukey 6 13 5 18

Comstock 1 1 2

Totals 17 55 16 24 53 Totals 24 45 14 22 63

Messalonskee 4 19 31 53

Bangor 16 27 43 63

3-pt. goals – Messalonskee (3-14): Dexter 2-7, Bridges 1-5, Perry 0-2; Bangor (1-4): Clukey 1-3, B. Hackett 0-1

JV: Bangor 53-49

Attendance: 200 (est.)