A blend of consistency on both ends of the floor turned out to be the recipe for success for the Deer Isle-Stonington girls basketball team Monday morning.
The fourth-ranked Mariners used an efficient effort from Macey Brown (19 points, eight rebounds, five steals) and suffocating defense to grind out a 45-21 Class D North quarterfinal victory over fifth-seeded Katahdin at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Deer Isle (14-5) advances to Wednesday night’s semifinal round against the winner of Monday’s second contest between top-ranked Southern Aroostook and Ashland while Katadhin wraps up its season 9-10.
The Mariners assumed control early thanks to Brown’s aggressiveness on the offensive end and a suffocating player-to-player defense that bottled the Cougars up anytime they penetrated the paint.
Brown’s seven first-quarter points fueled a 9-0 run from which Katahdin could not recover.
“We’ve always been really good at working on our defense,” Brown said. “We kept our strong defense and that helped us win the game.”
Deer Isle-Stonington’s aggressiveness on the defensive end led to 13 first-half turnovers by the Cougars, who had a difficult time penetrating inside.
The Mariners also did an effective job of working the ball into the interior against Katahdin’s 1-3-1 zone, and that coupled with Deer Isle-Stonington’s quickness led to multiple easy baskets.
“We like to work the ball into the middle and that kind of collapses everything down,” Brown said.
Rylee Door and Maya Brown contributed eight points apiece for the Mariners, giving Deer Isle-Stonington a fluid balance on the offensive end.
“We’ve had many games this year where we weren’t able to do that,” Brown said.
Katahdin was led by Mckenzie Landry’s seven points.
