Trying to work the baseline is Easton’s Isabelle Morin, right, while guarded by Deer Isle-Stonington’s Abigail Stinson during Monday night’s Class D North quarterfinal. (Joseph Cyr | HPT)
BANGOR, Maine — It had been 26 years since an Easton High School girls basketball team had reached the Class D North quarterfinals, and the Bears made sure they weren’t a one-and-out on Monday night.
Junior guard Isabelle Morin scored a game-high 16 points, and senior center Elise Allen had 12 points, eight rebounds and five steals to lead the fourth-seeded Bears to an impressive 45-23 victory over No. 5 Deer Isle-Stonington at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Easton, which had won its last five regular-season games, improved to 11-8 and meets top seed Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brook in Thursday’s 8:35 p.m. semifinal. The Warriors defeated No. 9 Katahdin of Stacyville 47-31 in the late game.
Deer Isle-Stonington wound up 11-8.
“This was a solid all-around game for us,” said Allen.
“We played really well,” said senior forward Sara Gilman, who contributed eight points and five rebounds. “We kept [our 2-3 zone] tight and we made sure if they took outside shots, we boxed out and got the rebounds.”
The Bears did an excellent job limiting Deer Isle-Stonington’s penetration and made it difficult for the Mariners to get the ball inside.
Easton’s Delaney Leach sports a special pre-game shirt worn by the Easton girls basketball team. The shirt pays tribute to the last Easton girls team to play in Bangor. (Joseph Cyr | HPT)
They held the Mariners scoreless for more than 10 minutes and rattled off 15 straight points to build a comfortable 23-5 lead early in the third period.
After Deer Isle-Stonington’s Katie Hutchinson opened the game by converting an Orly Vaughn pass on a drive to the basket, the Bears scored the next eight points, with the final six from Allen.
After Lily Gray hit a 3-pointer for the Mariners, Delaney Leach closed out the first quarter with a free throw and the Bears scored 12 second-quarter points to build the lead to 21-5 at the half.
Morin had eight of those points.
Hutchinson finally ended the drought by scoring off a driving layup with 6:43 left in the third period, but the Mariners couldn’t get any closer than 15 the rest of the way.
The Bears held DI-S to a 9-for-46 shooting performance from the floor (19.6 percent).
“They played very well,” said Mariners coach Randy Shepard. “They are a well-coached team and they’re very fundamentally sound. I was worried about their rebounding and they outrebounded us, and I was worried about us getting into foul trouble and we got into foul trouble.”
Senior guard Casey Lovely contributed four points, nine rebounds and four assists for the winners.
Sophomore guard Gray paced the Mariners with 12 points on four three-pointers. She also grabbed five rebounds and had three steals.
Freshman Hutchinson had the other 11 points, and she hauled down seven rebounds. Freshman guard Brienna Limeburner contributed seven rebounds and three steals, and junior Orly Vaughn had four rebounds and two steals.
