BANGOR — Throughout the season, the hallmarks of the Winslow High School girls basketball team have been defense and depth. On Friday night at the Cross Insurance Center, those helped lead the Black Raiders to the Class B state title.
“I knew that this team was a great team, and I wanted to be a part of it. We work hard every single day and we deserve this,” said Winslow senior Haley Ward, who scored a team-high 12 points.
Winslow trailed for just 1:04 before it took the lead for good over Lake Region midway through the first quarter en route to a 43-29 win. Winslow (18-5) won its first Gold Ball since 2005. Playing in its seventh state championship game in 14 years, the Lakers finished 16-6.
Even with a double-digit lead, Winslow coach Lindsey Withee didn’t feel the game was in hand until the final minute.
“I just looked up and there was 53 (seconds) and I kind of could feel it,” Withee said.
Throughout the game, Winslow played excellent man-to-man defense. Chandler True, the Lakers’ leading scorer, was held without a field goal until midway through the third. True finished with 12 points, nine in the second half. Lake Region’s inside threat, Lauren Jakobs, got into foul trouble early in the second quarter and finished with seven points.
“She’s a game-changer for us. She’s got to be on the floor. She’s one of our leaders,” Lake Region coach Paul True said of Jakobs. “With that said, she had two fouls she sat for more than half the quarter, and it was still a manageable game, I thought. It comes down to making shots, and we just couldn’t do that tonight.
With Jakobs on the bench, Winslow made a concerted effort to attack the basket more. Winslow led 20-11 at the half. The Black Raiders’ depth was on display in the first half, particularly offensively. Of Winslow 20 first half points, 11 came from reserve players. Silver Clukey scored five of her eight points off the bench in the second quarter, and Maddy Roy hit a three late in the first.
“We always had consistent scoring from a couple of them. Silver Clukey, Maddy Roy giving us a spark off the bench tonight,” Withee said. “They’ve accepted their role and realizing,, hey we need you to come in an be a game-changer, getting a quick rebound or a steal or scoring a quick basket.”
Added True: “We had to guard everybody. We had to contest every shot. They’re a difficult ballclub to defend because you can’t really key on that one person.”
Lake Region, on the other hand, never could find an offensive rhythm. The Lakers longest scoring run of the game was three points.
“I thought Winslow did a nice job not allowing us to get second chance opportunities, and we just couldn’t string together a couple of scores,” True said.
“We knew they wanted to get to the rim. We knew they had some shooters. You’ve got to find a happy medium of help side and getting a hand up and contesting their jump shots. I think we found that,” Ward said.
The Black Raiders pushed their lead to 12 points, 28-16, after three quarters, and pulled away in the fourth despite making one field goal in the quarter. Winslow was 13 of 19 at the line in the fourth to clinch the game.
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