BANGOR — The Presque Isle Wildcats showed why they are unbeaten and top-ranked Saturday with a dominating 86-31 girls basketball victory over the No. 9 John Bapst Crusaders in an Eastern Maine Class B quarterfinal at the Bangor Auditorium.
The Wildcats showed off a pressure defense in the first half along with a finely tuned offense equally adept at nailing outside shots, driving to the basket and scoring off transition. The result was an 18-2 first-quarter lead and 46-7 margin at halftime.
Presque Isle, now 19-0, advanced to Wednesday’s semifinal round against Gardiner. Bapst of Bangor finished at 9-10.
Presque Isle was propelled by the strong guard play of junior Chandler Guerrette and Megan Ireland, who led the balanced offense with 15 and 14 points, respectively. Smooth shooting freshman Hannah Graham added 11 points while classmate Krystal Kingsbury and junior Karlee Bernier each added 10. Junior Meredith Stewart provided inside punch with nine points.
Senior Paige Martin scored 12 points to lead the Crusaders and senior Emily Tilton added 11. Bapst was without one of its top players, sophomore center Abby Pyne, who was competing in a soccer tourney in Spain.
Presque Isle beat Bapst in their two previous matchups this season 71-15 and 42-24.
Give credit to the John Bapst players that played today, they were at every practice and played all year hard. Too bad all the players didn’t have the same commitment. Pyne should not be allowed to play next year after what she pulled. If she is more committed to soccer that is fine don’t play basketball and take a playing spot of someone else.