Second seed Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln topped youthful seventh seed Machias 74-33 for its 15th win in its last 16 games.
Six-foot-one Mattanawcook junior center and 1,000-point scorer Addison Cyr pumped in a game-high 23 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, blocked four shots and had two assists and two steals as the 17-2 Lynx took full advantage of their significant height advantage.
Mattanawcook and Machias met in the semis a year ago with the Lynx posting a 70-40 win.
Megan House contributed 21 points and five rebounds and fellow junior Juliana Clukey was the other Mattanawcook player in double figures with 10 points. Cloukey also dished out three assists.
Natalie Turner had eight points and five rebounds along with two assists and 6-foot-1 senior Lily Wotton contributed seven points and four rebounds.
“We played a great game,” said Cyr. “We got out into transition like we wanted to and played the basketball we know we can play. Having a lot of tall girls with length really helps.”
She also noted that having guards like Cloukey and Turner being able to hit threes and outside jumpers opens up things in the post for them.
“Our best offense is our transition,” said Lynx coach Pat House. “We can do a lot of things in our half-court offense because we’re big but our post players and wings can really get up and down the court when they want to.
“They’re really good passers and playmakers in transition and that puts a lot of stress on defenses,” he added.
Freshman Loretta Richardson led the scrappy 13-7 Bulldogs with 11 points and senior Laylah Wright had eight points, five rebounds and two steals. Sophomore Felicity Kelley had seven points and freshman Olivia Reynolds produced four points and six rebounds.
Mattanawcook Academy scored 15 unanswered points in the second quarter to build a 32-9 lead and never looked back.
Cyr had six points during the run and House had five.
“That was the worst draw we could have had but that’s the way it goes,” said Machias coach Scott Reynolds, who was proud of his team’s hard-working performance.
Mattanawcook Academy will now face Dexter in the semifinals on Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. Mattanawcook won both regular season games vs. Dexter, 36-21 and 57-29. This will be a rematch of last year’s semifinal, when Dexter triumphed 42-27 en route to a state title.
