BAR HARBOR, Maine — The only team that has caused any misery for the Presque Isle High School girls basketball team over the last four seasons has been Mount Desert Island.
That trend continued on Saturday afternoon.
Sierra Tapley, Kelsey Shaw and Sarah Phelps combined for 57 points and the Trojans rattled off a decisive 21-6 run to close out the first half en route to an 84-60 triumph over the Wildcats at the Bernard Parady Gym.
It was the third consecutive win over the Wildcats for MDI (15-0). Both losses for Presque Isle (13-2) have come at the hands of the Trojans.
MDI snapped Presque Isle’s 64-game winning streak and two-year reign as Class B state champions with a 63-51 victory in the EM Class B title game last season and the Trojans followed that up with a 70-64 regular-season win in Presque Isle on Dec. 30. That was PI’s first home loss since February, 2008.
Junior guard Tapley scored 22 points, dished out four assists and grabbed four rebounds for MDI and senior guard Phelps had 18 points and a game-high 14 rebounds along with two assists. Shaw, a junior forward, contributed 17 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals.
Coach Brent Barker’s Trojans took full advantage of their superior athleticism and quickness to out-rebound the Wildcats 39-20, leading to a number of second-chance points.
“Both teams are equal as far as skill goes so we knew we had to come out stronger and more aggressive,” said Tapley.
“We really keyed on boxing out and making sure we went after every ball,” said Shaw.
“This was our best game of the season,” said Phelps, who felt her team’s defensive play was the difference in the game.
The Trojans ran a number of defenses to keep the Wildcats off balance.
“We like to give teams different looks,” said Phelps.
Presque Isle swapped baskets with MDI for the first 10 minutes of the game but MDI used the 21-6 run to expand a 22-20 lead into a 43-26 halftime advantage.
Tapley poured in eight of the 21 points with Shaw and Keely McConomy scoring four apiece. Shaw also dished out three assists during the flurry.
Shaw began the run with a baseline jumper and she fed Sara Norberg for a 3-pointer from the left side of the key. Tapley then hit a neat, eight-foot floater while driving the lane.
Krystal Kingsbury converted an Emily Wheaton pass from in close to cut the deficit to 29-22 but MDI rattled off the next six points. Molly Carroll dished to Shaw for an eight-footer, Shaw rebounded a Tapley miss and made a nifty pass to an open McConomy under the basket, and Phelps capped the spurt by rebounding a missed free throw and laying it in.
After Kingsbury converted her own rebound, McConomy scored from the paint off a Shaw pass and Tapley nailed a 3 to make it 40-24.
Hannah Graham answered with a 10-foot jumper for PI but Tapley hit a desperation 3-pointer from the corner at the buzzer.
“They went on that run and we couldn’t match it,” said senior forward Kingsbury. “They’re a great team with some amazing players. They showed more toughness under the basket than we did. They were tougher mentally and physically and that’s something we need to work on.”
The Wildcats couldn’t get any closer than 16 the rest of the way, although they didn’t quit and made a 12-3 run early in the fourth quarter.
Darcy Kanu contributed 11 points and five rebounds off the bench for MDI, which shot 59.7 percent from the floor compared to PI’s 41 percent. McConomy had six points and three rebounds.
Senior guard Graham finished with a game-high 24 points for the Wildcats and she also had three rebounds and two steals.
Kingsbury had 10 points and three rebounds and Wheaton chipped in with 10 points, three assists and two rebounds off the bench. Taylor Williams and Emily Lagerstrom each had six points and Williams had a team-high six rebounds.
“They were real good today,” said PI coach Jeff Hudson. “We knew we had to stop Tapley but we didn’t do a very good job in the first half and it came back to haunt us. They can shoot, they can run and they’re very athletic. They’re a tough matchup for us like they are everyone else. They have too many weapons.”