FARMINGTON — Mt. Blue spotted Bangor 13 points at the start of Friday night’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A clash, a fact that will haunt the Cougars for a while, and not just because that was the Rams’ margin of victory.

Mt. Blue threw a scare into the top-ranked team in Eastern A, pulling within six late in the third quarter before Bangor seized ultimate control in the fourth quarter and pulled away with a 54-41 win.

Cordelia Stewart led the Rams (14-1) with 16 points, while Katie Butler added 12 and Sarah Bragg 11. Addie Brinkman paced the Cougars (9-5) with 16 points and Caitlin Kane chipped in with 12.

“That’s a tough way to start against a quality team like that,” Mt. Blue coach Gavin Kane said. “I was mentioning to the girls that if we hadn’t dug ourselves such a deep hole then maybe we’re right with them during spurts the whole way.”

“We hung our heads a little bit early, but after awhile, I thought our kids really battled hard and competed extremely well,” he added.

Trailing by 12 at the half, Mt. Blue started the second half with more fire. It also helped that Stewart went to the bench with three fouls early in the period.

Advertisement

Kane took advantage of the Rams losing one of their three towers and sparked the Cougars offensively by crashing the boards. First, she put back her own miss and drew a foul to cut the deficit to single digits. She missed the free throw but outfought two Rams for the rebound, put that back in and drew another foul. This time, she completed the three-point play to pull the Cougars within six, 35-29, with 2:51 left in the third quarter.

“I’ll tell you what, (Mt. Blue) played hard. They defended real hard and they made it real hard at the end,” Bangor coach Joe Johnson said. “They made a very good run at us. I was trying to figure out what we were going to do next, especially when Cordelia got into foul trouble.”

Bangor got the lead back up to 11 with a baseline jumper by Mary Butler (seven points, 11 rebounds, five assists) and a 3-pointer by Bragg. Eryn Doiron (nine points) responded with a 3-pointer for the Cougars, then nearly beat the buzzer with a 40-footer. The shot went off the back iron and Mt. Blue had to settle for an eight-point deficit.

Bangor went back inside to start the fourth, as Mary Butler found sister Katie for a hoop, then Katie hooked up with Hailee Campbell after the Rams patiently worked Mt. Blue’s zone to make it 44-32.

The Cougars cut the margin to eight two more times, but Stewart led Bangor with six points in a late 8-0 run to pull away.

“When you get in situations like that, you just have to stay as poised as possible, keep your composure and do whatever you do in practice to maintain the lead,” Stewart said.

Advertisement

“The veteran team that Bangor is, they moved the ball really well and actually got a couple of very easy baskets on us,” Kane said. “It was a little defeating when you’re working that hard to try to scrap your way back in.”

As many problems as Bangor’s size presented, its outside shooting produced the early outburst. Bragg hit a pair of 3-pointers sandwiched around a Mary Butler 3 for a 9-0 lead.

“That used to be our weakness was not being able to shoot,” Johnson said. “Now we’re starting to hit them.”

Four Mt. Blue turnovers in the first three minutes allowed the Rams to keep building on the lead from the inside, as Stewart found Katie Butler and Emily Gilmore scored on a putback before Brinkman finally got the Cougars on the board with a layup 4:20 into the game.

“I’m so envious of their height,” Kane said. “And not only do they have that size, but they’re talented athletes. They can see over the top of you. It’s very, very tough for us with that size differential to be able to trap them like we were trying to do.”

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638

rwhitehouse@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @rawmaterial33


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.