BANGOR – The Cony High girls basketball team long has been known for its guard-oriented attack and exploitation of the 3-point arc – a style that has kept the Rams among the state’s elite programs for nearly two decades.

Well, it’s time to say hello to a new brand of Cony basketball, where low-post play is now the priority but state championship aspirations are as strong as ever.

Katie Rollins, a 6-foot-2 junior center, and 6-1 freshman forward Cassie Cooper combined for 42 points, 22 rebounds, and six blocked shots Saturday as the undefeated Rams topped Skowhegan 51-44 to win their second Eastern Maine Class A championship in three years.

“It’s a good 1-2 punch to have,” said Cony coach Paul Vachon. “I think a lot of people would like to have it.”

The top-ranked Rams (21-0) will play Western A champion Deering of Portland for the state title at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland.

Rollins scored a game-high 25 points, shaking off a cold-shooting first half to score 13 third-quarter points as Cony built a lead of as many as 13 points. She scored the Rams’ first nine points after intermission, including four baskets from close range that helped Cony extend a 23-16 halftime advantage to 32-19 midway through the third quarter.

“I got a little frustrated in the first half,” said Rollins, who also had 10 rebounds and four blocks. “I was getting banged up a bit and wasn’t being as tough as I should have been in the first half.

“I just had to fix my mental status and come out tough, because I knew that if this was our goal, then it wasn’t going to be an easy 32 minutes.”

Cooper, the daughter of former University of Southern Maine career scoring leader Maureen Burchill Cooper and former Lawrence High girls basketball coach Bruce Cooper, battled through early foul trouble to score 17 points and grab 12 rebounds.

“They have great shooters, but we just had to work it inside,” she said. “Our height advantage was a key here, and we just had to outrebound them and work for good shots inside.”

Second-seeded Skowhegan, whose tallest player is listed at 5-10, simply couldn’t match Cony’s inside strength.

“We mixed things up a little defensively and tried to throw a couple of people at their inside people and make them beat us from the perimeter,” said Skowhegan coach Paul True, whose 18-3 Indians were making their first appearance in a regional final since 1979.

“Obviously they had too much of a size advantage inside. They did a great job of getting the ball into Katie Rollins, and she made some tremendous catches and finishes.”

Skowhegan did not go away quietly, thanks to some late-game success from beyond the 3-point arc by Nicole Paradis, Bethany Sevey – who tied a Class A record with 10 3-pointers in the tournament – and Kayla Thompson.

But the Indians got no closer than six points, at 47-41 on a jumper by Thompson with 1:02 left in the game, only to have that basket negated by a coast-to-coast drive by Cony’s Briiana Rende.

For the game, Skowhegan shot just 26 percent (17 of 66) overall and 21 percent (6 of 29) from long range.

“We knew that their 3-point shots were going to be what would get us if they made them,” Rollins said. “They started to hit some of their 3-point shots in the second half and we got a little worried, but we knew if we could stop them on the perimeter, we could be successful.”

Thompson, a 5-9 sophomore forward, paced Skowhegan with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Paradis, a 5-4 sophomore point guard, added 13 points for the Indians.

These may have been two of the youngest teams ever to match up in an Eastern A final, with Skowhegan starting two freshmen and two sophomores and Cony starting a freshman and four juniors.

The Rams embarked on a 12-2 run midway through the first quarter to take the lead for good, with Cooper and Rollins combining for nine points and Amanda Mason adding a 3-pointer.

That run gave Cony a 16-7 lead before Skowhegan’s Megan Franklin closed out the period with two free throws after being fouled at the buzzer.

Cooper drew her third foul with 5:15 left in the half, but Skowhegan couldn’t capitalize, drawing only within 21-16 on consecutive baskets by Thompson before Rollins scored on a follow-up shot to give Cony its seven-point lead at the break.

RAMS 51, INDIANS 44

Skowhegan (18-3) Cony (21-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Gibson 0 3 0 0 0 Mason 2 6 6

Paradis 5 14 0 0 13 B. Rende 1 3

Berry 1 6 1 2 3 Nimon 0 3 0

Sevey 2 13 0 2 6 Cooper 6 10 17

Franklin 2 6 2 2 6 Cloutier 0 0

Abbott 0 2 0 0 0 Rollins 9 20 10 25

Thompson 6 16 1 2 14

Miller 0 1 0 0 0

Smith 1 5 0 2 2

Totals 17 66 4 10 44 Totals 18 43 14 22 51

Skowhegan 9 16 29 44

Cony 16 23 38 51

3-pt. goals ? Skowhegan (6-29): Paradis 3-9, Sevey 2-11, Thompson 1-3, Miller 0-1, Berry 0-1, Franklin 0-2, Abbott 0-2; Cony (1-6): Mason 1-3, B. Rende 0-1, Nimon 0-2