Wells girls basketball bests Maranacook in C South semifinal

Payton Fazzina scores 14 points in the fourth quarter, and the Warriors prevail in a defensive battle to reach the regional final.

Posted February 19

Updated February 19

Cooper Sullivan Staff Writer

Wells players celebrate they beat Maranacook 35-27 on Wednesday at the Augusta Civic Center to earn a spot in the Class C South regional final. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image

AUGUSTA — Sandi Purcell knew the Maranacook girls basketball team would be a bunch of “defensive maniacs” against Wells in their Class C South semifinal Thursday at the Augusta Civic Center.

But a 10-7 score at halftime? The Warriors’ coach wasn’t expecting that.

“Yeah, our offense isn’t what we want,” Purcell said. “Ten points is low, but we held them to seven. What’s going to win us this game is our defense. We need to keep being gritty on defense… and our offense will come from that.”

Eventually, it did.

Wells senior Payton Fazzina scored 17 of her 21 points in the second half, including all 14 of her team’s fourth-quarter points, and the third-seeded Warriors beat the second-seeded Black Bears, 35-27.

“I think a switch just turned on,” Fazzina said. “I think player for player, we were better than them. I truly believe that. I just think all of us contributed so much, and they can’t just shut one person down on our team. They have to shut down everyone, and they couldn’t.”

Wells (18-2) advances to face No. 1 Spruce Mountain (19-1) in the Class C South final at 7 p.m. Saturday. Maranacook ends its season at 16-4.

In the first half, both teams combined for 25 turnovers and shot below 25% from the field.

Fazzina, who finished with five rebounds, four assists and two steals, opened the third quarter with two great feeds from the top of the key and a 3-pointer as the Warriors stretched their lead to 17-9.

A three-point play at the end of the third by Alice Ferran (nine points, five steals) and a 3-pointer from Gracie Farrell early in the fourth brought the Black Bears back within one, 21-20.

And although Maranacook’s interior defense was able to limit Miss Maine Basketball semifinalist Megyn Mertens to two points and seven rebounds, it gave plenty of space for Fazzina to hit two more deep 3s.

Maranacook cut the margin to 28-27 with 1:51 left on a basket by Celia Bergdahl (nine points, 10 rebounds) and a 3-pointer and putback by Ferran. But Fazzina went 7 for 8 from the line to put it away.

“We executed what we wanted to execute, and the difference is they hit a couple of their shots that occurred in the second half that gave them that little bit of a lead, but we continued to fight back,” Maranacook coach Karen Magnusson said. “Wells is good. Anyone that’s scouted them and watched them (knows) they’ve got multiple kids that can shoot it. They’ve got a great point guard, and their best player is their forward that dominates. And tonight, I thought we made a lot of things occur that they weren’t ready for.”