BANGOR, Maine — A strong all-around effort carried the No. 3 Fort Fairfield Tigers past the No. 6 East Grand Vikings 54-29 Saturday evening in an Eastern Maine Class D girls quarterfinal at the Cross Insurance Center.
Fort Fairfield (18-2) will face No. 7 Van Buren in a 2:05 p.m. Thursday semifinal after the Crusaders (15-5) upset the No. 2 Shead Tigers 43-30 in the nightcap.
The Vikings finish their season with a 12-6 record and the Tigers end at at 14-6.
Junior guard Taylor Churchill led Fort Fairfield with 16 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, earning her the Darling’s/BDN Player of the Game honor. Churchill scored seven of her 16 points in the fourth quarter and was a defensive stalwart for the Tigers.
Senior forward Megan Jellison chipped in 13 points, converting many of those baskets from inside the paint as she used her 5-foot, 8-inch frame to establish dominance down low. Junior forward Teresa Maynard added eight points for the Tigers, also from the low post.
Senior forward Allie McEwen led East Grand with 16 points, including a perfect 4-for-4 from the foul line. Sophomore forward Sarah Stoddard added 10 points.
“The game went as we hoped it would go, in terms of extending the floor to make it a 94-foot game,” said Fort Fairfield coach Larry Gardner. “We wanted to wear them down, but I think we got a little fatigued as well in the second quarter.
East Grand of Danforth, appearing in a tournament game in Bangor for the first time in 13 years, scored the game’s first points, but when Fort Fairfield, a perennial tourney powerhouse in Class D, began pressing, the wheels began to unravel for the Vikings. Fort Fairfield rattled off 10 straight points to close out the first quarter up 16-4. East Grand never recovered.
“Our goal this season was to finish in the top six and make it to Bangor,” East Grand coach Mike Carlos said. “We achieved our team goals, but we fell short of exceeding that goal. It was a great year for the town of Danforth.”
The lack of experience playing in Bangor resulted in some jitters, the coach admitted, but the loss was not without positive benefits.
“We have to learn how to lose before we can learn how to win,” Carlos said.
In the final game of the day, Van Buren led 29-11 at the halftime break and withstood a second-half surge by Shead, which cut the game to 10 with 2:30 to play, but it was too little too late as Van Buren made its free throws down the stretch to secure the win.
Senior center Emily Dumond, who was named the Darling’s/BDN Player of the Game, led Van Buren with 16 points, including nine in the first quarter. Senior Felisha Bouchard added 14 and senior Courtney Parent chipped in 12.
For Shead, junior Cierra Seeley led the way with 10 points, while sophomore Holly Preston and senior Mariah Kirshman each had seven.
“Any time you can get a win in Bangor it’s a good thing,” Van Buren coach Matt Rossignol said. “What I liked is we had some other girls step up tonight as Shead took away (Felicia) Bouchard. Emily Dumond was really big for us tonight.”