WATERVILLE — It’s been a while, but the Mount View girls basketball team is headed to Bangor.
Led by Hannah Coolen’s 26 points, the No. 12 Mustangs beat No. 5 Waterville 46-36 in a Class B North prelim game on Tuesday night. With the win, the Mustangs will be playing in Bangor for the first time since the 2008-2009 season, when they fell to Waterville in the semifinal round in the Bangor Auditorium.
“It’s really exciting,” Coolen said. “I just can’t believe we did it.”
“I’m so fired up, I’m so happy for these girls,” Mount View head coach Mark Cooper said. “People don’t even realize the last time the Mount View girls played in Bangor, it was the Bangor Auditorium, it wasn’t the Cross Insurance Center. There are (30-plus year olds) living in our district that played (at that time), it’s been so long. This year we won (eight) games, which is the most we’ve won in a decade.
“This is my fifth year. When I took the job, I said ‘Give me five years. If I can’t get it done, I’ll more than happily move on and let someone else take over.’ I’m very proud of these girls. They’ve worked so hard.”
Down 12-8, the Mustangs (8-11) went on a 13-0 run between the first and second quarter to take a 25-20 lead into halftime. Coolen, a senior guard, scored 11 points in the first quarter alone, and finished with 17 of Mount View’s 25 first half points.
“I was just locked in,” Coolen said.
“Hannah Coolen wasn’t going to be denied today,” Cooper said. “She was going to make it happen, she didn’t want this to be her last game.”
Despite strong defensive play by the Purple Panthers (12-5), Mount View never relinquished the lead in the second half. The Mustangs outscored Waterville 10-7 in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
Waterville’s Dakodah Aldrich gets knocked to the court as she is defended by Mount View’s Arianna Bradeen, left, and Sydney Vogel, right, during a Class B North girls basketball preliminary game Tuesday in Waterville. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
“We just really wanted to win, so we pushed through and kept calm as much as possible,” Coolen said.
It was the third time this season the Mustangs played the Purple Panthers. Waterville beat Mount View 51-46 at home on Dec. 21, then picked up a 38-35 win over the Mustangs on Feb. 5 in Thorndike.
“It was a very physical game, always tough to play a team the third time around for sure,” Waterville head coach Joy Charles said. “I thought both teams worked really hard. It was an aggressive battle for sure, could have gone either way. We didn’t hit our shots late in the game.”
Waterville, which carries a roster of 10 and had even less Tuesday night due to injury, struggled with its shooting and ran into foul trouble late in the game. The Purple Panthers forced 27 turnovers out of Mount View.
“I’m super proud,” Charles said. “I hate to see the tears at the end. I just told them how proud I was. They got through COVID, they got through low numbers. We’ve got one out with a concussion now. We’re still down, we’ve been down bodies all season long, in and out of injuries, a nose surgery, so many different things. I’m very proud (of the team).”
Senior guard Keira Gilman led Waterville with 11 points, while senior forward Denelle Eldridge added eight points.
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