BANGOR – Even though the Woodland girls basketball team led Ashland by only five points after the first quarter of Saturday’s Eastern Maine Class D final, it was simply a matter of time before Courtney Cochran took over.

She did in a big way in the second quarter, scoring 14 of the second-ranked Dragons’ 20 points in the period as they coasted into Saturday’s Class D state final with a convincing 70-34 victory at the Bangor Auditorium.

Coach Arnie Clark’s club, now 19-3, faces Western Maine champ Buckfield at the Augusta Civic Center.

Bill Nemer’s No. 4 Hornets finished 16-7.

The 6-foot Cochran was too dominating a presence in the post for the smaller Hornets, whose tallest player was 5-9 Mindy Chasse. The senior forward had a double-double (22 points, 11 rebounds) in the first half alone.

“She’s a very, very good ballplayer, probably one of the better ballplayers in Eastern Maine without question, in any class,” said Clark, whose team is making its second state-final appearance in three seasons.

The Dragons won the state title in 2006.

The Hornets hung tough early, and even led by five at one point in the first quarter, as they shot well from the perimeter and hit 5 of 6 from the free throw line.

The Dragons’ 1-2-2 half-court press soon responded, collapsing on the perimeter and not allowing Ashland stars Chasse and Whitney Flint any clean looks.

“We knew they like to shoot outside. We just extended out to the half-court line so they’d have a hard time getting over half-court,” said Cochran, who finished with a whopping 33 points and 17 boards, including nine on the offensive end.

Woodland led 38-22 at halftime, then continued its assault in the second half. Cochran continued to dominate the post and her putback in the final minute of the quarter capped a 10-2 run which gave the Dragons a more-than-comfortable 57-29 lead heading into the fourth.

Even when Ashland threw double-teams at Cochran, frontcourt mate Julia Nicholas and guard Ariel Knights had an easy time getting wide-open layups and short jumpers.

“I knew if I had two players on me, someone was open,” said Cochran. “It opened up the center a lot, so I just looked to Julia when she cut down from the free-throw line, and she got the layups.”

Another thing that stung the Hornets was foul trouble, as both Chasse, a 1,000-point scorer, and Flint picked up their fourth fouls in the third quarter.

“That limited them offensively and defensively. That’s the way the game goes,” Nemer said.

Ashland had a tough time with Woodland’s press, and they turned the ball over 21 times.

“We knew their half-court pressure would bother us. We hadn’t seen that that much this year,” said Nemer.

Since the Dragons didn’t make it to the Auditorium last winter, Cochran would love nothing more than to have another gold ball come home to Woodland’s trophy case.

“It’s a great feeling, it’s really important to me and especially to the underclassmen,” said Cochran, one of only three seniors on the Woodland roster.

Knights finished with 10 points and Nicholas eight for Woodland while guard Ashley Laking contributed six.

Chasse led Ashland with nine points while Flint, her cousin, scored seven.

bdnsports@bangordailynews.net

DRAGONS 70, HORNETS 34

Ashland (16-6) Woodland (18-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Orcutt 0 0 0 0 0 Laking 3 9 6

W.Donovn 0 0 0 0 0 Boomer 1 2 2

Graham 0 0 0 0 0 Knights 5 13 10

Good 0 0 0 0 0 Gabriel 0 2 1 1

Chasse 3 12 3 4 9 Torrey 2 4 4

Flint 1 6 4 4 7 McGinley 0 1

Pelkey 1 3 0 0 2 Nicholas 4 13 0 0 8

C. Cook 2 6 0 0 5 Cochran 11 19 11 12 33

D’Ozier 0 0 0 0 0 Parks 0 1 0

Baker 1 7 3 4 5 White 0 2 2

M. Cook 0 1 0 0 0 Bergin 1 6 3

Tilley 0 0 0 0 0

Poulin 2 10 0 0 6

M.Donovn 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 10 45 10 12 34 Totals 27 72 16 20 70

Ashland 13 22 29 34

Woodland 18 38 57 70

3-pt. goals – Ashland (4-15): Poulin 2-8, C. Cook 1-2, Flint 1-4, Chasse 0-1; Woodland (0-0)