BANGOR, Maine — Hermon had the chance Tuesday night to work out any postseason nervousness with a preliminary game win over John Bapst at the Cross Insurance Center.
That helps explain why coach Amanda Gifford’s Hawks appeared so comfortable during Friday night’s Eastern Maine Class B basketball quarterfinal on the same court.
Eleventh-seeded Hermon exhibited offensive balance, cohesive defense and aggressive rebounding to knock off No. 3 Medomak Valley of Waldoboro 42-30 in the 2015 tournament opener.
“I felt for the first time all year we pulled it together for 32 minutes,” Gifford said.
“We stuck to our plan defensively, we keyed in on [No.] 22 [Hannah Marks], which we knew was going to be their big gun, and we took care of business on offense.”
The Hawks (10-10) face the second-seeded Presque Isle Wildcats in the semifinals 2:05 p.m. Wednesday. Presque Isle ousted No. 11 Winslow 50-33. The Panthers finished the season 14-5.
A key for Hermon was its ability to match Medomak Valley’s frontcourt height. The Hawks clogged the lane with a 2-3 matchup zone and still came away with a 42-31 rebounding advantage.
“Hermon did a great job rebounding out of that zone. We were one-and-done all night,” Medomak coach Randy Hooper said.
Senior forward Shelby Caron was force inside for Hermon, posting a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds en route to Darlings/BDN Player of the Game honors.
Senior forward Kailee Dunton provided seven points and four rebounds, while the Hawks featured a versatile backcourt headed by senior Claire Petersen (7 points, 9 rebounds) and junior Bryanne Crouse (8 points, 4 rebounds).
Allessa Oakes, Emi Higgins, Katie Corey and Maddie Pullen also made contributions for Hermon, which overcame 6-for-16 free-throw shooting.
“We were really excited because it was our first quarterfinal game we’ve had in all the years since the seniors have been here, so we just wanted to play hard,” Petersen said.
Marks led the Panthers with 10 points and seven rebounds, while Justice Barrows added four points and five boards. Medomak Valley shot 21 percent (10-for-47) from the floor, including 3-for-21 on 3-pointers.
The Hawks surged in front for good with a 6-0 burst late in the second quarter. Caron scored an offensive rebound basket and Petersen followed with a short runner off the glass. Dunton hit a 14-footer that gave Hermon a 21-16 lead.
Medomak Valley never got closer than two after that and suffered through a scoreless drought of 6½ minutes. The Panthers cut the deficit to 30-27 on five straight points by Marks, but Hermon outscored Medomak Valley 12-3 over the last seven minutes to secure the win.
“We cut it to three, we just couldn’t get that one more basket we needed to make it interesting,” Hooper said.