Three seniors who led their respective teams to state championships highlight the 49th annual Bangor Daily News All-Maine Schoolgirl Basketball Team as first team selections.
Cheverus of Portland guard Kylie Lamson led her Cheverus High School Stags to the state Class A title, Lawrence High of Fairfield guard Maddie Provost guided her Bulldogs to the B crown and forward Addison Cyr sparked her Mattanawcook Academy Lynx from Lincoln to their first Class C championship.
They were joined on the first team by Oceanside High of Rockland freshman phenom Olivia Breen and South Portland High junior guard Annie Whitmore.
Lamson and Provost have earned first team honors for the second straight season while Cyr was a second team pick a year ago. Whitmore was an honorable mention last season.
Lawrence High School senior forward Ashley Shores heads up the second team and she is joined by Bangor Christian senior guard Mary Allen, Sanford sophomore guard/forward Mollie Puffer, Mt. Ararat of Topsham senior forward Julianna Allen and Camden Hills junior guard Thea Laukka.
Julianna Allen was a second team pick a year ago and Laukka and Mary Allen were honorable mentions.
Gray-New Gloucester junior guard Abbey Steele and Wells senior forward Megyn Mertens are joined on the third team by Hampden Academy senior center Grace LaBree, Penobscot Valley High of Howland senior forward Lila Cummings and Wisdom High of St. Agatha senior guard Ava Lerman.
Heading up the list of honorable mentions are guards Rylee Moulton and Brooklynn Raymond, who teamed with Cummings to power PVHS to its second straight state title in basketball to go with three state championships in soccer.
Gardiner sophomore standout Molly Takatsu, Biddeford twins Natalia and Gabby Silva and Valley High of Bingham’s Liana Hartwell, who led her team to the state Class S title, are among others on the talented list of honorable mentions.
The team was selected by the BDN sports staff with input from coaches and athletic administrators. Based on available statistics, some player averages reflect regular season performance and do not include playoff results.
FIRST TEAM
Provost was the catalyst behind Lawrence’s state championship run, averaging 24.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 3 steals in three games en route to Class B North All-Tournament Most Valuable Player honors. She capped her remarkable high school career by leading the Bulldogs to a 52-41 victory over Oceanside of Rockland in the state championship game.
The Miss Maine Basketball recipient had 19 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots in the state game.
“She is a prolific scorer. She gets everybody’s best defender but still averages 20-plus points per game,” said Hampden Academy coach Nick Winchester. “Her passing and ballhandling are underrated and she can jump out of the gym. She is special.”
Ellsworth coach Andy Pooler added that Provost is also “underrated as a defender and the thing that is really impressive is her ability to change the complexion of a game with a snap of her finger.”
Provost averaged 28 points, nine rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.
Lamson is considered a “natural scorer” by Winchester, who witnessed Lamsonscore 17 of her 21 points in the second half to rally her Stags from a 17-point halftime deficit to a 63-61 overtime win in the state Class A final over his Broncos.
Her layup with two seconds left in regulation forced the overtime, and she also had five steals in the game.
She had scored a game-high 19 points to lead the Stags to a 46-35 win over South Portland in the A South title game.
“She has the ability to make space for herself,” said Gorham coach Laughn Berthiaume. “She can drive and pull up quick or she can step back. She is able to extend off the 3-point line and she is fantastic in the open court.”
Lamson averaged 21.4 points, 2.5 steals, 2.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.
Cyr stamped an exclamation point on her terrific high school career by scoring 25 points and grabbing 23 rebounds in a 54-40 win over Spruce Mountain High of Jay in the state championship game, capping a 22-0 season for Pat House’s Lynx.
The 6-foot-1 Cyr had averaged 17.7 points, 10.7 rebounds and 4 blocked shots in MA’s three Class C North tourney wins to earn MVP honors and averaged 25.7 points, 18.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game this season.
“She can be extremely dominant, she can score in the post at will and can rebound like no other. But my thing for her is decision-making and playmaking ability,” said Mattanawcook’s Coach House.
Cyr understands spacing on the court and is an excellent passer, according to her coach.
“People look at her and go ‘Well, she’s big and strong,’ House said. “But she really understands where shots are going to come from and how to go get an offensive rebound and how to protect the ball from defenders.”
Cyr was also an effective rim protector and teamed with fellow senior standout Megan House, an honorable mention selection, to guide the Lynx to a 70-13 record in their four years together.
Breen had a memorable freshman campaign as she led Oceanside to the Class B South championship by averaging 24.5 points, 10.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.7 blocked shots and 1.3 steals per game.
She shot 50.2% from the floor.
Breen spent her eighth grade year at prestigious Montverde Academy in Florida where her sister, Bailey Breen, played.
Matt Breen, Olivia and Bailey’s father and the Oceanside coach, said Olivia “exceeded expectations a little bit” but he had already expected her to be “pretty solid” this season.
“She was able to put the ball in the basket but she had good teammates who did a good job getting her the ball in position to score,” Matt Breen said. “She can play inside and out, she moves well. She can handle the ball.”
Whitmore was named the Southern Maine Activities Association’s Defensive Player of the Year as she anchored a South Portland defense that limited opponents to a league-low 31.3 points per game.
She also led the conference in assists with 4.2 per game and averaged 12.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2 steals per contest.
“She sees the floor very well,” said Berthiaume. “She has court savvy and a high basketball IQ. She can score at all three levels.”
The Gorham coach also said Whitmore was a very good distributor of the ball who consistently found the open shooter.
“That meant she didn’t get to shoot it that much,” said Berthiaume, who noted that her 12.3 points per game was good considering that opponents put their best defender on her.
SECOND TEAM
Shores was one of the state’s most underrated players, according to Winchester.
“That’s because Provost’s name is so big and she is so good,” Winchester said. “But if you watched the B North final and the state championship game, you understand how good and talented Ashley Shores is.”
Shores poured in 29 points and also had seven assists, five rebounds and two steals in the B North final win over Gardiner and added 19 points and four rebounds in the state title game victory over Oceanside — while also holding Breen eight points below her average.
“And that was a huge size mismatch,” Winchester said about Shores. “She’s a really tough kid who plays both ends of the floor. I don’t remember her missing a shot in the state game. She hit big shot after big shot.”
Shores averaged 16.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game.
Puffer had a superb season for Sanford, averaging 17.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.5 steals per game.
She was second in the SMAA in scoring and fourth in rebounds.
“She is a physical presence at guard,” Berthiaume said. “She is a match-up problem. She is very determined. Her will to win is right up there.”
Julianna Allen was a well-rounded player who filled all the statistical categories by averaging 10.7 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.9 steals, 1.9 blocked shots and 1.9 assists.
“Every time you played them, she was the player you had to focus on,” Winchester said about Allen. “You had to find a way to limit her impact on the game.”
Winchester said if you double-teamed her, she would find the open shooter.
“And she is very effective, defensively. She is one of the anchors of their defense,” the Hampden coach added about Allen. “She is a very good basketball player who is unselfish. She could have scored more but they had a deep team so points came from a lot of different places which may have diluted her stats.”
Mary Allen’s first and only season at Bangor Christian was a memorable one as she averaged 22.7 points, 5.6 assists and 5.5 rebounds for the Patriots and led them to the top seed in the Class D North Heal Points standings.
The Patriots went 18-0 during the regular season and beat Schenck of East Millinocket 87-27 in the quarterfinals before being upset by Penobscot Valley in the semis.
“Mary is an incredible player,” said Bangor Christian coach Brock Bradford after the victory over Schenck, which upset the Patriots in the semifinals the previous year. “She can score, she can defend, she distributes. She does it all. She’s a leader and a great person.”
House, the Mattanawcook coach, said Allen does a great job getting into the paint and credited her high basketball IQ.
“I don’t think people understand how good defensively she can be,” House said. “She can do a little bit of everything, offensively.”
Laukka is yet another well-rounded player who can impact a game in several different ways.
She averaged 13.5 points, 4.9 steals and 3.5 assists per game for the Windjammers.
“She could be one of the best guards in the state, not just the KVAC or the North,” said Winchester. “She’s somebody you could say, ‘Go get me a bucket,’ and she would.”
Laukka always finds the open teammate and is a lock-down defender, according to Winchester.
“She makes all of her teammates better,” the Hampden coach said. “She draws a lot of attention but she is so unselfish and so heady.”
THIRD TEAM
Point guard Lerman led Wisdom to their first regional title since the 1997-98 season by averaging 28 points, five rebounds and five assists per game. She turned in a superb performance in the Class S North Tournament en route to MVP honors.
“She can hurt you more than one way,” said Easton coach Cody Humphrey. “She can be a spot-up shooter, she can take it to the hole and finish or, if she doesn’t finish, she will dish it off to someone else on her team and they will put it up and in.”
Cummings was a dominant inside presence for the Howlers and was at her best in the 42-35 win over Mt. Abram of Salem Township in the state Class D final.
Cummings had a double-double with 15 points and 16 rebounds and she made two crucial blocks late in the game to enable the Howlers to maintain three and four-point leads.
Cummings had three 12-point games in the D North tourney and also averaged 7.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2 steals.
For the year, she averaged 13.3 points and 11.1 rebounds.
“She is relentless in the way she outworks people,” House said about Cummings.
Steele piloted her Patriots to a berth in the Class B South championship game against Oceanside and then poured in a game-high 33 points in a 68-51 loss.
She was chosen the regional tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
She had 16 points in a semifinal win over Marshwood of Eliot.
Steele finished the season averaging 15 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 2.2 assists for the Patriots and she hit over 40 3-pointers.
“She’s one of those kids who can do it all,” said Oceanside coach Breen. “She’s a good offensive player. She can shoot it, she handles the ball well. She makes good decisions.”
The 6-foot-4 LaBree was a difference-maker in the paint who played a pivotal role in her Broncos reaching the state Class A final.
LaBree averaged 10.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and 1.4 assists per game and shot a sizzling 69% from the floor.
She had 15 points, eight rebounds and seven blocked shots in the 63-61 overtime loss to Cheverus in the state championship game.
She had 11 rebounds and five blocks in the A North title game win over Mt. Ararat of Topsham and had a critical blocked shot in the final 10 seconds of a 41-39 semifinal win over Camden Hills of Rockport.
“She dominated those tournament games by eliminating anything in the paint,” Winchester said. “She took away a section of the court all by herself.”
Mertens concluded a stellar career at Wells by averaging 21.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.
She reached the 1,000-point plateau in a win over Sacopee Valley of Hiram by pumping in 34 points including eight 3-pointers.
“She can shoot it. She rebounds very well for her size and she can pass,” said Breen. “She is an undersized big with the ability to stretch the floor.”
