By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HODGDON — Playing before a full house of fans, the Hodgdon girls basketball team punched their ticket to Bangor Feb. 12 with a solid 67-33 win over East Grand of Danforth.
No. 3 Hodgdon (15-4) advanced to Saturday’s Class D quarterfinal contest against No. 6 Van Buren. (See accompanying story).
No. 14 East Grand, under the tutelage of Mike Carlos, finishes its season with a 7-12 overall record, nearly doubling the win total from a year ago.
The Hawks received balanced scoring from Lacey McQuarrie, 16 points; Jennah Steamer, 12; and Haley Gardiner and Lauren Howell, each with 10. Elisha Farley led the Vikings with 10, while Shaunna Beaudoin added eight.
“This was a very emotional game,” said Hodgdon coach Vaughn Farrar. “You just don’t come across a special group of girls like this very often.”
UP STRONG — Going to the hoop for a layup is East Grand’s Shaunna Beaudoin during a Feb. 12 preliminary playoff against Hodgdon. East Grand fell 67-33.
Last Tuesday’s game marked the final time that seniors Mariah Wiley, McKensie Palmer, Karissa Harris, McQuarrie, Gardiner and Steamer would play on the Hawks home court. After the final buzzer, the seniors gathered in a circle at center court and shared a private moment with each other before heading to the locker room.
The Vikings played a straight man defense against Hodgdon, and had some success pressing at various times throughout the game.
“I expected Carlos would come after us and they did,” Farrar said.
Hodgdon’s defensive pressure was a bit more dominating as the Hawks rattled off a 15-3 scoring run to start the contest thanks to excellent perimeter shooting from McQuarrie and Wiley.
“We worked on running our offense all week and we wanted to come up here and score some points,” Carlos said. “They just didn’t bring it tonight.”
East Grand has shown a steady improvement with Carlos back at the helm this year. He coached in Danforth from 1998-2001 before moving to the stints with the University of Maine at Presque Isle and Washburn.
“We’ve come a long way, there is no doubt about that,” Carlos said. “Are we as far as we need to be? No. Are we working to get there? Yes.”
Hodgdon held the Vikings to just 10 points at halftime and 17 after three quarters. East Grand then had its best offensive period, nearly doubling its total, by scoring 16 in the final frame, but it was not enough to get back in the game.
The Vikings lose just two members of their squad to graduation, and Carlos said he was optimistic for what the future holds for the program.
“Our eighth-grader (Sarah Stoddard) was one of our better players this year, and I have a seventh-grader who will be up next year who is very promising,” he said. “The days ahead for East Grand look very bright.”
EAST GRAND (33)
Beaudoin 3 2-5 8, Winarski 0 0-1 0, S. Stoddard 2 2-4 6, Crone, Young, K. Stoddard 0 2-2 2, McEwen 2 3-4 7, Farley 3 4-6 10, Hood. Totals: 10 13-22 33.
HODGDON (67)
Steamer 6 0-1 12, Gardiner 3 4-5 10, Wiley 3 0-0 9, Palmer 2 0-0 4, McQuarrie 5 2-2 16, Howell 4 2-2 10, Harris 1 0-0 2, Sherman. Totals: 25 10-12 67. 3-pointers — Wiley 3, McQuarrie 2.
Vikings 3 7 7 16 — 33
Hawks 15 16 17 19 — 67
