BANGOR, Maine – The defending state Class C champion Penobscot Valley High School girls basketball team from Howland had lost to Bangor Christian three times during the regular season.
But the Howlers avenged those losses in impressive fashion on Wednesday afternoon as three players scored in double figures and the Howlers held the previously undefeated Patriots to a season-low 37 points en route to a 52-37 victory in their Class D North semifinal at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Fourth seed Penobscot Valley, 15-5, will take on second seed Machias, 18-2, in Saturday’s 2 p.m. regional championship game. The Howlers moved to Class D this season after a statewide reclassification.
The Patriots lost second-leading scorer Annie Allen just 3:11 into the game when one of her front teeth was loosened during rebounding action. She said that her uncle, a local dentist, was able to fix her tooth at his practice in Orono, but she didn’t return to the game.
“This was the best game we’ve played all year,” said junior guard Brooklynn Raymond, who turned in a superb all-around game with 10 points, 10 rebounds, four steals and two assists.
“We’re used to this atmosphere and we know what it takes to win these big games,” added Raymond. “We came in confident. We knew what we had to do to get it done.
PVHS outrebounded Bangor Christian 27-18.
The Howlers switched from a 1-3-1 zone to a 1-2-2 for this game and it paid dividends.
“We had to be aggressive and make sure we stayed strong and didn’t get pushed around,” Raymond said. “We had to dominate the boards and win the 50-50 balls.”
Raymond pointed to a refrain from Howlers Coach Nate Case.
“Coach said we always have to do the small things because they’re not really small things,” Raymond said.
Senior guard Rylee Moulton said the 1-2-2 zone “allowed us to scramble and get to the places we needed to be” against the Patriots.
“In our 1-3-1, we were getting beat weak side a lot,” Moulton said. “This scramble defense, it didn’t matter where you were, they got very few wide open shots and that’s what we wanted to limit.”
Moulton finished with nine points, five steals, four assists and three rebounds.
She felt the difference was their “conditioning and grit and being able to play when things got hard. Earlier on in the season, we were lacking that grit and once we figured it out, we really figured it out.”
Senior forward Lila Cummings had a team-high 12 points to go with six rebounds and four assists and sophomore forward Charlotte Brochu produced 10 points, six assists and three rebounds.
Eighth-grader McKenna Ireland chipped in seven points off the bench.
Bangor Christian scoring leader Mary Allen poured in a game-high 18 points but had to work hard for all of her points because she was the focal point of the Howler defense and the loss of her sister made things even more difficult for her. She also had three assists and two rebounds.
Freshman forward Rivers Bradford had seven points, three rebounds and two assists despite dealing with a stomach bug earlier in the day.
Freshman guard Maris Kowalski came off the bench and chipped in with six points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals.
The Howlers took a 23-21 lead into the half but broke the game open in the third period by outscoring Bangor Christian 16-3 and the Patriots couldn’t get any closer than 12 the rest of the way.
Cummings had five points and an assist during the decisive spurt, Moulton had five points and two assists and junior forward Abby Farley had all four of her points during the run. Brochu closed out the quarter with a basket underneath off a Cummings feed.
“We certainly weren’t at full strength but Penobscot Valley played really well. They had a good game plan,” said Bangor Christian coach Brock Bradford, whose team finished up at 19-1.
