The high school girls are working hard to close out the last week of the regular season.
The girls playoffs begin Tuesday, Feb. 11. In Class C, 11 teams qualify for the postseason and the Houlton girls are currently sixth.
In Class D, 16 teams head to the postseason. Southern Aroostook is 10th, GHCA is 11th; East Grand, 13th and Katahdin is 14th.
On Monday, the Houlton girls played in Hodgdon and picked up a 58-21 win behind Bre Longstaff’s game-high 17 points. Katie Condon tossed in 11, while Mariah Boyd, Emma Peterson and Jessy Dickison each posted six points.
For Hodgdon, all seniors scored in the game. Hannah Sherman, Taylor Desrosiers and Lauren Howell had four points apiece.
On Saturday, the Houlton Lady Shires picked up a 52-21 win over visiting Madawaska.
Natalie Hill scored a game-high 16 points, while Dickison tossed in 11 and Sam Keegan added eight points and grabbed six rebounds.
The Lady Shires improve to 9-5.
Alexis Levesque led Madawaska with 10 points.
Saturday in Easton, the Bears escaped the Katahdin Lady Cougars, 57-48.
At Easton, Kylee Carter led all scorers with 19 points and the Bears improved to 11-4 overall and 7-1 in “The Barn” with a hard- fought win over Katahdin.
The Lady Cougars had a slim edge at the end of the opening quarter, 12-10, but saw it dissolve into an Easton 26-23 halftime lead. In the third, Easton gained ground with a 39-34 advantage en route to the win.
Molly Cunningham paced Katahdin with 15 points, while Morgan Livezey chipped in with nine more.
For Easton, Mariah Cyr added 15 in addition to her eight steals and Hannah Ferris netted 10 points.
The Southern Aroostook girls played Woodland twice last week and won each contest, 58-31 in Woodland on Saturday and 59-28 in Dyer Brook last Tuesday.
In Woodland, the Lady Warriors took a 16-8 opening lead and extended it to 31-11 at intermission. After the third, Southern Aroostook led 47-20.
Kennedi Smith led all scorers with 24 points. Mataya Hartin scored 10 and Sable Altvater finished with nine points and 20 rebounds.
“We did a good job in transition creating layups from our pressure defense,” said SACS coach Cliff Urquhart. “Sable was under the weather during the bus ride and didn’t feel well during the game. It was good to see other players step up and lead the way scoring-wise. I feel we have five players who at times could all lead the team in scoring on any given night.”
In their home game, Jessica Tucker knocked down 15 points, while Altvater finished with 14 points, including her 1,000th high school point. Smith tossed in 14, while Hartin added eight and Chloe Raymond seven more.
Woodland’s Daynah Brown scored eight points and Julia Sprague added seven.
Southern Aroostook led at the quarter breaks: 16-11; 30-19; and 47-21.
Last Wednesday in Eastport, the East Grand girls fell to Shead, 59-42.
The Lady Tigers jumped to a 17-7 first-quarter lead, but East Grand battled to keep the score within distance at halftime, 28-21. After three, Shead extended its advantage, 45-32.
Allie McEwen scored 14 points for East Grand, while Kim Stoddard posted 10 and Chelsea Winiarski added eight.
Washburn easily handled the young Hodgdon girls squad, 67-16, last Wednesday in Hodgdon.
At Hodgdon, Mackenzie Worcester scored 22 points for Washburn, while Grace Braley added eight.
For Hodgdon, Lauren Howell scored 11 points.