PI girls fall to Greely
PORTLAND, Maine — The Greely High School girls basketball team’s most well-known player is 6-foot-3 senior Ashley Storey, a Miss Basketball finalist headed to the University of New Hampshire on an athletic scholarship next fall.
But when Presque Isle took a quite logical step and focused its defensive attention on the Rangers’ center, Greely’s perimeter players made the Wildcats pay.
Greely’s perimeter players erupted for a Class B state final record nine 3-point goals — seven in the first half alone — and defeated Presque Isle 56-39 at the Cross Insurance Arena on Friday night to win its first state championship since 2004.
“They know that if teams double- or triple-team me that they’ll have the shots or I’ll kick it out,” Storey said. “We’ve had a couple of good shooting games like this, but everyone just came out ready to play tonight. We wanted it so bad.”
Coach Joel Rogers’ club, the No. 3 seed in the Western Maine tournament, concluded its gold-ball season with a 20-2 record.
Presque Isle, which was seeking its third state title in the last four years after winning its regional crown as a No. 2 seed, finishes with a 19-3 record.
Sophomore Moira Train led a balanced Greely offense with 14 points, including three 3-pointers, while Storey finished with 13 points, 13 rebounds, three steals and three blocks. Reserve guard Isabel Porter added 12 points for the Rangers.
Senior center Krystal Kingsbury paced Presque Isle with a game-high 18 points — all in the second half — as well as 10 rebounds, while Emily Lagerstrom hit three 3-pointers to finish with nine points.
Senior guard Hannah Graham, Presque Isle’s Miss Basketball finalist, was limited by Greely’s defense to just three points in the contest,
“They made nine 3-pointers and they had a 6-3 girl,” Presque Isle coach Jeff Hudson said. “We knew it was going to be tough if they made a lot of [outside] shots.”
Presque Isle opened the game focusing its 1-3-1 zone defense against Storey, but the rest of the Rangers shot the Wildcats out of that effort at a blistering pace from long range.
Presque Isle scored the game’s first five points on a layup by Regan Nelson and a 3-pointer by Lagerstrom, but Greely outscored the Wildcats 33-5 for the rest of the half — including 7-of-11 accuracy from beyond the arc.
That bettered the previous Class B state final record of five in a game by Houlton in 1993 and George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill in 1999.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Train and Isabel Porter amid four straight Presque Isle turnovers gave Greely a 6-5 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Rangers then outscored Presque Isle 24-5 in the second period while not committing a turnover and making all five of their 3-pointers. Train had two more from long range to go with 3-pointers by Porter, Molly Chapin and Haley Felkel.
Presque Isle was forced to switch to player-to-player defense, and that opened up the inside for Storey, who had eight points and five rebounds in the second quarter after a scoreless opening period.
Train led the way for Greely at intermission with nine points while Nelson had four points for Presque Isle, which made just four of 21 field-goal tries in the opening half and went scoreless for an 8-minute, 10-second stretch for much of the first quarter and early in the second period.
Presque Isle came out battling after the break, particularly the 5-foot-8 inch Kingsbury, a 1,000-point career scorer who took the ball right at the taller Storey with considerable success.
Kingsbury scored nine third-quarter points while inducing Storey’s third foul, but Presque Isle shaved just two points off its halftime deficit and trailed 43-22 entering the fourth quarter.
Kingsbury added another low-post basket and scored again on a follow-up shot while inducing Storey’s fourth foul to pull the stubborn Wildcats within 43-26 with 6:48 left in the game.
But Storey stayed in the contest and scored on an inside move, then Chapin struck again from beyond the arc to push the Greely lead back to 19 points.
A runner by Emily Wheaton got Presque Isle within 48-33 with just over three minutes to play and a later 3-pointer by Lagerstrom and a three-point play off a turnover by Kingsbury drew Presque Isle as close as it would get at 53-39 with 1:25 left.
