BANGOR, Maine — The Shead High School girls basketball team avenged a 52-point preliminary round loss to Washburn two years ago in dramatic fashion when Holly Preston’s layup off a Cierra Seeley pass with 8.6 seconds remaining beat Washburn 38-35 in a Class D North semifinal Thursday at the Cross Insurance Center.
No. 2 seed Washburn finished up at 15-5 and ended a remarkable five-year reign as Class D state champions. Shead went on to defeat Central Aroostook Saturday to capture the regional title.
Laina Mette’s steal and layup with 1:33 left gave the Beavers a 35-34 lead.
Each team missed free throws and Shead’s Cassidy Wilder grabbed a defensive rebound off a foul shot miss with 24.5 seconds left.
Cierra Seeley had the ball at the top of the key and fed it to the breaking Preston.
“I saw an open space and started going to the basket,” said Preston. “Cierra gave me the pass and I was hoping to get fouled but the shot was good. I was kind of stumbling because I stepped on someone’s foot.”
“Originally, I was going to go to the basket but I knew I couldn’t so I saw Holly and got it to her,” said Seeley.
Wilder then intercepted an errant pass and made two clinching free throws with 2.8 seconds left, capping a dramatic fourth quarter for the reserve forward, who had all eight of her points, a pair of rebounds and a steal in the final eight minutes.
“I felt I had to go out and get it done like everyone else,” Wilder said.
Preston had a game-high 11 points and also grabbed four rebounds for Shead. Seeley had 10 points and Wilder had eight. Taylah Kilby had seven rebounds. Brooke Robinson, Seeley and Katelyn Mitchell had five rebounds and two assists each. Wilder and Hannah Link had six rebounds each.
Farley’s nine points, Churchill’s eight points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals, Braley’s eight points, seven rebounds and two steals and Howe’s six points and game-high eight rebounds led Washburn.
Shead jumped out to a 15-5 lead in the first quarter behind Seeley’s eight points.
But Shead went 1-for-9 from the floor in the second quarter and freshman Kassie Farley scored five straight points to close the gap to 19-16 at halftime.
“Give Shead credit. We had a hard time scoring against their [3-2 zone] defense,” said Washburn coach Diana Trams. “Having [point guard] Laina Mette in foul trouble definitely hurt us because it made it difficult to set up our press and up-tempo the ball. But we never gave up and I was really proud of our effort.”
Shead 38, Washburn 35
No. 3 Shead (14-6)
Preston 4-14 3-6 11, Robinson 1-4 0-3 2, Seeley 5-9 0-0 10, Mitchell 1-7, 1-2 3, Kilby 2-5 0-0 4, Link 0-1 0-2 0, Wilder 3-5 2-2 8 Totals 16-45 6-15 38
No. 2 Washburn (15-5)
Mette 1-4 0-0 2, Farley 4-10 1-1 9, Howe 2-4 2-4 6, Churchill 2-13 3-7 8, Braley 4-8 0-0 8, Sarmiento 1-3 0-0 2, Vaughn 0-1 0-0 0, Corey 0-0 0-0 0 Totals 14-42 6-12 35
3-pt. goals: Shead 0-4: Preston 0-2, Mitchell 0-2; Washburn 1-4: Churchill 1-2, Mette 0-1, Farley 0-1
