BANGOR, Maine — The youthful Erskine Academy girls basketball team from South China couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start in their Class B North semifinal game against John Bapst High from Bangor at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on Wednesday afternoon.
The Eagles missed their first nine field goal attempts and the Crusaders, playing on their home court, jumped out to a 12-0 lead.
But second seed Erskine Academy, which started four sophomores and a junior, outscored the Crusaders 46-26 the rest of the way to earn a 46-38 victory over the sixth-seeded Crusaders.
Erskine Academy, now 16-4, will face top seed Caribou, 19-1, in Friday’s B North championship game at 6 p.m. at the Cross Center.
John Bapst finished up at 12-9.
“We never quit. We just keep on going. We knew what we have to do,” said Erskine Academy sophomore guard Kelsie Dunn. “We’ve always been good at coming back and playing our game.”
“John Bapst is tough,” said Erskine Academy coach Danielle Lefferts. “We knew they had energy going in after upsetting Old Town in the first round. And we knew [Claire Gaetani] is one heck of a player. Hats off to them.”
“With my girls, they just play basketball,” added Lefferts. “They hang in there every possession, every play. They keep the wheels on and keep chugging along and it works out for us.”
Erskine Academy pecked away at the deficit in the first half but still trailed 26-18 at the half.
However, the Eagles scored the first eight points of the second half to tie it with sophomore forward Kienna Morse notching the first three baskets and freshman Kinsey Ulmer tying it up with a layup off a Dunn steal and pass.
“My team picked me up. They said, ‘Kienna, we need you to lock in’ and that’s what I tried to do,” said Morse.
After John Bapst regained the lead when Gaetani stole the ball and sank a layup, Erskine Academy’s Madeline Clement-Cargill and John Bapst’s Hailee Dearborn swapped 3-pointers before Dunn gave the Eagles the lead for good with a three off an Olivia Childs pass to close out the third period.
Sophomore Isabella Winchenbach hit a pair of free throws for Erskine Academy to open the fourth quarter and Morse fed Dunn on a back door cut for a layup and she was also fouled. Dunn sank the free throw to make it 37-31.
Morse then made a steal and passed to Ulmer for a layup to make it 39-33 with five minutes to go.
Following a pair of Gaetani free throws, Childs passed to Morse for a basket and Dunn converted from the free throw line to build the lead to 10.
Gaetani tried to rally the Crusaders with a basket and a conventional three-point play but the Crusaders couldn’t get any closer than five.
The Eagles’ 1-2-2 three-quarter court press forced a bunch of Crusader turnovers, especially in the second half.
“Our girls have been running that since they were in third grade, almost,” said Lefferts. “I credit a parent group. They have a couple gentlemen who coach them in the offseason and have since they were young. And they have perfected it. It’s instinctive for them.”
“They’re quick and they want that ball,” added Lefferts.
Dunn finished with 17 points, six rebounds and two steals and Morse had 10 points, three rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot. Ulmer had seven points and three rebounds and Clement-Cargill produced four points, six rebounds and two blocked shots.
Winchenbach had four rebounds and a block to go with her five points and Childs finished with three points and three assists while also doing an exceptional job guarding Gaetani.
“Olivia is all heart and grit and I knew she would be the best one to frustrate Gaetani as much as possible on the ball,” said Lefferts.
Gaetani had scored at least 30 points in each of her last three games at the Cross Center but was limited to 17.
John Bapst coach Matt Smith said Erskine Academy did a good job “speeding us up” in their 1-2-2 trap.
“We got out of the flow of our offense. We got away from what we were doing to figure it out [early in the game]. They are a physically and mentally tough team to be able to stay in it after our run. Coach Lefferts has done a great job this season,” said Smith.
The Bates College-bound Gaetani, a 1,000-point scorer, capped her exceptional high school career with six rebounds and three steals to go with her 17 points. Sophomore Stella Goetz had 11 points, all in the first half, and she also had seven rebounds.
Dearborn and Jessie Grant each had a 3-pointer and Grant grabbed four rebounds. Anna Smith had five rebounds, two steals and a basket and Morgan Wilson had seven rebounds. Sophia Ward had two assists, two rebounds and two points.
