By Larry Mahoney, BDN Staff
The top-seeded and defending two-time state champion Southern Aroostook High School girls basketball team from Dyer Brook found themselves in a rare position in Thursday morning’s Class D North semifinal against hard-working fourth seed Jonesport-Beals: trailing after the first period.
But the Warriors rattled off a 22-2 run spanning the second and third periods and went on to post a 57-35 victory at the Cross Insurance Center.
The 19-1 Warriors, winners of four of the last five state D titles, will face seventh seed Katahdin of Stacyville, 14-7, in Saturday’s 1 p.m. regional championship game.
SA won the two regular season meetings.
Jonesport-Beals wound up 12-8.
Sisters Cami and Ally Shields accounted for all of the 22 points with 11 apiece during the decisive spurt which turned a 12-11 lead into a 34-13 advantage with three minutes left in the third quarter.
“We knew coming into the game that it was going to be a battle,” said senior Cami Shields. “We knew they worked really hard and had a size advantage over us. So we knew we were going to have to work harder than them and box them out. On offense, we had to hit the shots and run the floor.”
The relentless press employed by the Warriors forced 34 turnovers and Southern Aroostook transformed several of those into easy transition baskets.
“That was definitely big for us, turn them over so we could get some steals,” said Shields who also noted that they felt they could tire them out with their press which also factored in creating turnovers.
“Whenever you get transition points, you get a little bit of momentum,” said Southern Aroostook coach Cliff Urquhart. “We’ve ridden on that all year long and I felt like that was kind of key. Get out, get some easy ones and settle in.”
He said Jonesport-Beals did a “great job” rebounding.
“They’d get two or three chances early on. We rebounded a little better in the second and third quarter. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. They made us work for it,” he said.
Cami Shields finished with a game-high 20 points and she also had five rebounds, five steals and three assists. Sophomore sister Ally scored 18 points and had three rebounds and two steals. Junior center Libby Anderson, senior forward Emmalee Landry and junior guard-forward Olivia Ellingwood had five points apiece. Anderson had five rebounds and a blocked shot. Landry had four rebounds and a block and senior guard Madison Shields, Cami and Ally’s cousin, had five steals, four rebounds and three points.
Sophomore guard Mia Mills paced the Royalettes with 10 points, six rebounds and three steals. Senior forward Mary McDonald finished with nine points, four rebounds and two steals.
Junior guard Makayla Merchant had six points, senior forward Leah Beal tallied four points, three rebounds and a steal and sophomore forward Riley Balicki produced four points and six rebounds. Senior guard Rachel Crowley grabbed six rebounds to go with two points.
