The top-seeded Dexter High School girls basketball team received an important 3-pointer at the buzzer from Abby Corson to end the first half and outscored eight seed Fort Kent 14-2 in the third quarter en route to 47-27 victory in their Class C North quarterfinal at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on Tuesday.
Dexter is now 18-1 and will take on 17-3 Central on Friday at 3:30 p.m. in the semifinals.
Dexter won both regular season meetings, 46-40 and 50-30.
Six-foot-two junior center Mazie Peach had 16 points and 16 rebounds to power the Tigers to the win.
Cally Gudroe had 11 points and five rebounds, Hannah Dean had eight points and four rebounds and Corson wound up with seven points, three rebounds and three steals.
Lily Oliver’s six points, three rebounds and three steals led 11-9 Fort Kent.
Lily Werntgen had six points and five rebounds.
Talented point guard Larissa Daigle had five points, two rebounds and two steals in the first half but suffered a leg injury late in the half and had to be carried off the court. She didn’t return.
Peach said the Tigers “knew we needed to step it up in the second half” and they did.
“We worked a little harder. We played with more fear that we wouldn’t make it to the next round,” added Peach, who had a distinct size advantage over the Warriors.
“It took us a long time to get settled in but that’s part of the tournament experience,” said Dexter coach Jody Grant, who said his team settled down in the second half.
“When No. 2 [Daigle] went down, that took them out of a lot of things they do offensively. She is their floor general. That changed a lot of things. It was unfortunate to see her get hurt, especially her senior year,” said Grant.
The veteran coach noted that Corson’s 3-pointer off at the buzzer was important.
“They had been on a little bit of a run. That gave us a little momentum,” Grant said.
Fort Kent had rattled off a 6-2 spurt to slice the lead to 17-15.
Corson said she knew the time was running down.
“It was definitely good for us to get that last shot off,” said Corson, who was on the left side at the top of the key when she received a cross-court pass from Jillian Poliquin.
Dexter’s tenacious defense limited Fort Kent to a 10-for-30 showing from the floor and Dexter outrebounded Fort Kent 27-17.
It was the 14th time this season that Dexter has held an opponent to 30 points or less.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the points totals for Mazie Peach and Hannah Dean. They have been updated.