Several teams traveled down from Aroostook County for games at the Cross Center in Bangor on Thursday. And two of the star players brought plenty of offensive firepower with them.
Wisdom senior guard Ava Lerman quickly put up the highest point total yet in the early days of the Bangor tournament, scoring 41 points in the first game of Class S girls small school action on Thursday.
And Easton sophomore forward Mason Pelletier was quick to follow suit in the boys game that followed, dropping 42 points in a win over Wisdom.
Those equally impressive totals mean Lerman and Pelletier have earned a tie for the Bangor Daily News top tourney performance from Thursday’s action.
Both the Wisdom girls and Easton boys won comfortably thanks in large part to their leading scorers. Each of the impressive performances were career highs for Lerman and Pelletier, they said.
“It didn’t feel like 41 but it was a great feeling,” said Lerman, who also had 11 rebounds, four steals and three assists on Thursday afternoon.
Pelletier said he knew he was in the zone after the first couple of shots went in, so he just kept at it.
“That’s my career high,” Pelletier said. “We have the biggest crowd throughout our whole season, and it feels great to hear the crowd cheer and them call your name after.”
He also had nine steals and five assists on the win.
Both players said their defense helped generate success on the offensive side of the ball.
“Defense sparks my offense. So getting in a low stance, getting steals, getting tips and then pushing in transition sparked a lot of the offense for me today,” Lerman said.
It was a similar story for Pelletier and the Easton boys on Thursday.
“When we have good defense, we have good offense,” Pelletier said. “We had a lot of steals that led to points.”
