Junior guard Maddie Fitzpatrick scored nine of her game-high 17 points in the third quarter as the second-seeded Cheverus High School Stags outscored third seed Bangor 15-6 to erase a three-point deficit en route to a 38-29 victory in their Class AA North semifinal at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Wednesday afternoon.
Defending state champ Cheverus of Portland will meet the winner of the game between top seed Oxford Hills and No. 5 Hampden Academy in Saturday’s 2 p.m. championship game.
Bangor concluded a 16-4 season.
Cheverus has now won 18 of its last 19 games after opening the season with a 52-44 road loss to Bangor.
Junior center Emma Lizotte had nine points for the winners while Jaelyn Jensen and Ruth Boles added five apiece.
Bangor senior guard Emmie Streams and senior center-forward Abbie Quinn had 10 points apiece to lead the Rams. Quinn was held to four points in the second half and Streams didn’t score after the intermission.
Bangor led 19-16 at the intermission but went 10:14 without a basket in the second half as Fitzpatrick, who has committed to play at the University of Maine as has Streams, took control of the game in the third period despite foul trouble.
Cheverus outscored Bangor 10-2 to open the second half and took a 31-25 lead into the fourth quarter.
Fitzpatrick had a 3-pointer and three baskets in the third quarter and she also dished out two assists and had a steal.
She began the second half by banking in a short lefthanded hook shot before Boles hit a 12-foot turnaround jumper to give Cheverus a lead it would never relinquish.
Fitzpatrick made a steal and passed to Lizotte for a layup to extend the lead to 22-19.
Lizotte was playing with a bandaged left arm after suffering an elbow injury in the quarterfinal win over Edward Little of Auburn.
After Quinn converted a Taylor Coombs pass for Bangor’s only basket of the third period, Fitzpatrick converted a layup off a Boles pass and then passed to Jaelyn Jensen for a basket.
Quinn sank a pair of free throws but Fitzpatrick fired in a 3-pointer and, following two Lilly Rice free throws, Boles fed Fitzpatrick for a close range basket just before the buzzer sounded.
The Stags scored the first two baskets of the fourth quarter before Cassidy Ireland’s jumper with 2:46 remaining ended Bangor’s scoreless span and pulled Bangor within 36-27.
Carmen Maddix hit a floater 46 seconds later but those would be the last points Bangor would get as the Rams were held to their lowest output of the season.
Bangor scored only 10 second-half points off three baskets and four free throws.
The Stags did an exceptional job pressuring Bangor and limiting Bangor’s open shots. The Rams shot poorly and they also turned the ball over at critical times.