BANGOR, Maine — The Mattanawcook Academy Lynx held Narraguagus High School scoreless in the third period and received seven points from Kendra Thurlow to upset top seed Narraguagus of Harrington 41-31 in an Eastern Maine Class C quarterfinal at the Cross Insurance Center on Tuesday night.
The Lynx went from man-to-man to a 3-2 zone to neutralize Kelli Kennedy, who had 10 first-half points, and they also received six third-quarter rebounds from Cheyanne Libby.
“Our girls can do that. They can play good defense when they want to,” said Mattanawcook coach Stephanie Dubay, whose team will play Dexter in the 3:35 p.m. semifinal Friday. The Tigers edged No. 5 Calais 41-40 in overtime in an earlier quarterfinal.
The Lynx took a 19-14 lead into the intermission and scored 13 points in the third period to expand the lead to 32-14 after three.
The Lady Knights battled back valiantly and cut the lead to 32-23 on Caryl Ann Young’s 3-pointer.
But Courtney Gordon nailed a 3-pointer from the right side with 3:06 left to give the Lynx their first points of the fourth quarter and some valuable breathing room.
“Courtney has hit some big shots for us,” said Dubay.
Kennedy responded with a foul-line jumper but Thurlow fed Meredith Blessard underneath for a short jumper to sew up the win.
Thurlow finished with 14 points and three steals for the eighth-seeded Lynx who are now 13-7 and have won six in a row. Gordon added 12 points and three assists and Camryn Lyons had nine points and two assists. Libby wound up with 10 rebounds.
Kennedy had 13 points for the Knights and also hauled down six rebounds. Kayla Toppin came off the bench and had nine points, including seven in the second half. She also had four rebounds.
The Lynx stunned the Knights by scoring the game’s first 10 points.
Gordon hit a four-foot jumper off a pass from Thurlow and nailed a 14-footer off a feed from Lyons.
Gordon sank a free throw to make it 5-0 and passed to Lyons for a 3-pointer before Thurlow capped the run with two free throws.
Kennedy’s six-foot runner snapped the streak but Thurlow answered by converting a Gordon pass to make it 12-2.
But the Lynx wouldn’t score again until there was 3:23 left in the half as Kennedy scored six straight points.
Toppin’s six-foot jumper and Cassidy Osgood’s 15-foot jumper tied it 12-12 with 5:19 left in the half but the Lynx outscored the Knights 7-2 to close out the half behind Lyons’ four points.
Narraguagus wound up 14-5 after having a seven-game winning streak snapped.