BANGOR, Maine — The second-seeded Mattanawcook Academy girls basketball team from Lincoln seemed to be on their way to a comfortable victory over sixth seed Dexter in their Class C North semifinal at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on Thursday afternoon.
The Lynx used a 13-0 run spanning the second and third quarters to build a 21-10 lead with just 2:06 left in the third period. They held Dexter scoreless for nearly 14 minutes.
And they still had a 26-14 advantage with only 7:46 remaining in the game.
Coach Jody Grant’s defending state champion Tigers fought back dramatically behind seniors Kayleigh Dunton and Abby Corson to pull within three on two occasions later the fourth but Mattanawcook juniors Megan House and Addison Cyr came through in the clutch to enable the Lynx to hold off the Tigers, 35-32.
Mattanawcook Academy, now 18-2, will take on 20-0 top seed Penobscot Valley of Howland in Saturday’s 6 p.m C North title game at the Cross Center. PVHS won both regular season meetings.
Dexter wound up 15-6.
“It feels good to finally have this win under our belts, especially after facing them last year,” said guard House, referring to their 42-27 loss to Dexter in the semis a year ago. “This is really big for our team. I’m really happy for everyone and really proud of the outcome.”
“We knew we needed to play defense. We knew they were going to slow the game down and we like to get out and run,” said Cyr. “So we had to value our possessions, make shots when we needed to and play defense.”
Corson began the Dexter rally with a traditional 3-point play off a driving layup to make it 26-15 with 7:32 remaining.
She then fed Dunton for a three and junior guard Annabelle Peakes scored off an offensive rebound to suddenly close the gap to 26-20.
Cyr and House answered as the 6-foot-1 Cyr took advantage of her height advantage to score inside off a House pass and then House hit a pull-up jumper from eight feet out to restore the lead to 10.
But Maine Central Institute transfer Dunton nailed a three and followed that with a pair of baskets down low to cut the lead to 30-27.
Dexter regained the ball but Cyr blocked a shot and eventually scored inside off a House pass to make it 32-27 before Corson responded with a baseline drive basket.
Dexter stole the ball but couldn’t convert and Cyr made a steal.
Neither team could score for a couple of minutes and House rebounded a Dexter miss with 1:05 remaining.
She was eventually fouled and made both free throws with 34.8 seconds left to build the lead to five.
Dexter was called for traveling but got the ball back late and Dunton hit a three with 2.2 seconds remaining to make it 34-32.
House made one of two free throws with 1.6 seconds left and Dunton’s desperation heave from half-court glanced off the rim.
Mattanawcook coach Pat House said Cyr and his daughter “have led us all year.”
“When things got tough, they found a way. They found each other,” said the coach. “That’s what they do. I’m very proud of them.”
Dexter coach Grant said even though his team lost, “there is a lot to be proud of.”
“It was a great group of kids who battled every day. And it’s a resilient group,” said Grant. “It was one of those situations where I would have liked us to have executed a little better coming down the stretch but it was what it was.”
House finished with a game-high 16 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals and Cyr produced 14 points, 10 rebounds, three blocked shots and two assists. Lily Wotton had three assists, three rebounds and a basket.
The hard-working and scrappy Dunton scored 13 points for the Tigers, all in the second half, and she hauled down eight rebounds.
Standout point guard Corson wound up with 12 points and two rebounds.
Peakes chipped in with four points and six rebounds.
