The defending Class C state champion Penobscot Valley girls basketball team from Howland and its tenacious full-court trapping defense raced out to a 23-8 lead in the first quarter and then went on a virtually unprecedented 39-0 run en route to a 73-19 victory on Monday.
The Howlers beat fifth seed Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook in their Northern Maine Class D quarterfinal at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
The fourth-seeded Howlers, now 14-5 and winners of eight of their last 10 games, will now take on the winner of the game between top seed Bangor Christian and No. 8 seed Schenck of East Machias in Wednesday’s 11:30 a.m. semifinal.
Southern Aroostook finished at 14-5.
The Howlers outscored the Warriors 20-0 in the second period to take a 43-8 lead into the intermission and then rattled off the first 19 points of the third period before junior Alexa Hersey hit a 3-pointer with 1:38 left in the third period to end the run.
Senior guard and career 1,000-point scorer Rylee Moulton had a game-high 21 points in the first half and eighth grade guard McKenna Ireland produced 15 points off the bench.
Moulton also had six rebounds, two assists and two steals and Ireland had three assists.
Lila Cummings added 12 points and 9 rebounds. Brooklynn Raymond had 10 points, three rebounds and three assists.
“I thought we played well, one through 10,” said Moulton. “All 10 of us were in the stat book in one way or another so that’s a testament to the work we’ve put in the last 10 days.”
PVHS head coach Nate Case was happy with his team’s performance.
“I like how we rebounded. We still took our shots even though, percentage-wise, we didn’t shoot great from the 3-point line. Those are still opportunities to get offensive boards,” Case. “We defended well.”
He also praised Moulton for her on-ball defending on Southern Aroostook standout Ally Shields and noted that Moulton also got help from her teammates.
Shields, a career 1,000-point scorer, had nine points and six rebounds to cap an outstanding career for the Warriors.
Sophomore guard Haley McGary had five of the eight first-half points for Southern Aroostook, which turned the ball over 15 times over the first 16 minutes leading to a number of transition baskets.
