PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — For only the second time in eight years, the Presque Isle Wildcat girls suffered defeat on their home floor and it took some unexpected heroics by a couple Houlton Shiretowner basketball players to pull it off.
After Houlton lost the lead for the first time since the late stages of the first quarter, Chelsea Gentle’s 14-foot jump shot from the baseline with eight seconds left lifted the Shiretowners (16-1) to a gritty 53-52 victory over Presque Isle (14-3) last Tuesday night in a battle between two of the top three teams in Class B North.
After sophomore guard Emily Wheaton scored on a baseline layup with 20 seconds to play to put the ’Cats up by a point, Houlton called a time-out to set up a play.
“Honestly it was supposed to be an inside look for Kolleen [Bouchard], but she couldn’t get freed up on the post and the play just broke apart,” Gentle, who considers herself more of a defensive player, said, “and when I caught it on the wing, I thought ‘why not.’ They weren’t guarding me again and I had been shooting alright all night so I said I might as well take it.”
Presque Isle coach Jeff Hudson said the game plan on the final possession was to keep the ball out of the hands of Bouchard, but it led to the wide-open shot.
“We wanted to take away Kolleen, Warman and Flewelling on that last possession and make someone else beat us, so you have to give credit to Gentle,” said Hudson. “We figured they would post Kolleen up so we just had Gentle’s defender stay in the lane to help. She made a big shot. You’ve got to give her credit. It was nothing but net.”
Wheaton got off a 3-pointer just inside the halfcourt stripe before the buzzer sounded, but Bouchard blocked it to secure the win.
Gentle was just one of the Houlton players who helped overcome a tough offensive evening for Bouchard, who was saddled with foul trouble throughout the first half and was shadowed by PI defensive standout Olivia Hudson throughout. She was held without a field goal, missing all five of her attempts, and finished with one point.
Aspen Flewelling was another Shiretowner who came up with some big plays. She caught fire early in the third quarter, nailing five of her first seven shots from the field to help Houlton build a 41-31 lead with 3:25 to go in the period. The sophomore scored 14 points in the quarter and finished with a game-high 23, including four 3-pointers.
“My adrenaline got going and I just got so into the game,” Flewelling said. “We worked as a team the whole game and when Kolleen went out, we knew we needed to step up on offense.”
Rylee Warman was another player who took on a larger role, netting 12 points including a nifty fast-break layup following a Kristen Graham steal midway through the fourth that kept Houlton on top at the time. Senior Natalie Hill was a calming presence on the floor in Bouchard’s absence and had six points, six assists, six rebounds and three steals.
The Shiretowners enjoyed as much as a nine-point lead in the first half, thanks to accurate shooting from the perimeter. Three-pointers by Warman and Graham 35 seconds apart late in the first quarter put Houlton on top for the first time, 11-8.
Bouchard, who sat out nearly 6-1/2 minutes of the first half after picking up her second foul 5:21 into the game, scored her only point of the game from the foul line in the second half and it gave her team a 23-14 advantage with 3:28 left, but she was on the floor for a little over a minute before picking up her third personal and going back to the bench.
Olivia Hudson had the best game of her career in her final one at home, not only shutting down Bouchard but tallying 16 points of her own while adding five rebounds. Wheaton notched 19 points and had six rebounds and Vogel grabbed eight boards to go along with her six points off the bench.
