BANGOR, Maine — Camden Hills senior Rachel Pease admitted she was a little tired with four minutes left and her team tied with Oceanside in an Eastern Maine Class B girls basketball quarterfinal Saturday morning at the Cross Insurance Center.
That didn’t deter the 6-foot-2 center, however, as she scored four of her team’s nine points in the last 2 minutes, 32 seconds to help give the Windjammers a 49-45 victory over the Mariners of Rockland/Thomaston.
“We all rallied together thinking this could be our last game,” said Pease, who finished with 12 points and also controlled the rebounding game for the ‘Jammers and earned Darling’s/BDN Player of the Game honors.
“I’m a senior and just the thought of this being the last game — you have to push it. I was tired, but we all said we have to win this.”
The fourth-seeded Windjammers, who beat the Mariners by margins of two and four points in their two regular-season matchups, improved to 15-5 and advanced to a semifinal at 3:35 p.m. Wednesday against the winner of Saturday’s later game between No. 1 Mount Desert Island and No. 9 Gardiner. Oceanside finished with a 14-6 record.
While Pease provided a strong post presence for the Windjammers, they also benefited from the guard play of 5-6 sophomore Charlotte Messer and 5-6 junior Madelyn Bowman.
Messer showed off some nice driving moves to the basket and a pullup jumper en route to a game-high 16 points. She also helped secure Camden Hills’ victory when she sank 3 of 4 free throws in the final 25 seconds.
Bowman sparked the Windjammers in the first half when she scored eight of her 10 points.
Kalyn Grover, a hard-working 5-7 junior forward, paced the Mariners with 14 points while battling against the taller Windjammers. She scored two baskets following an offensive rebound and drew fouls, converting 8 of 10 shots from the line.
Camden Hills surged to an eight-point lead at the end of the third quarter after freshman guard Laticia Billings hit two baskets, the first off her own steal and the second on an offensive rebound, but the Windjammers rallied to tie it at 40 with 3:11 left in the game.
The Mariners went on a 12-4 scoring surge behind six Grover free throws, a conventional three-point play by junior forward Emily Gould and a 3-point shot by senior guard Payton Billingsley.
The Windjammers, under the direction of coach Meg Cressler, then got back to what had been working for them all season.
“We talked about spreading the floor, just taking our time, trying to get a good shot, trying to use Rachel in the post like we did in the first half,” Cressler said.
The strategy worked with points from Pease and a basket by senior forward Eliza Boetsch, who converted an offensive rebound.
