The Ellsworth High School girls basketball team lost a pair of three-point games to Caribou during the regular season.
But thanks to freshman guard Lizzie Boles and sophomore forward Grace Jaffray, the third time was a charm for the Eagles as Ellsworth beat Caribou 71-51 in their Class B North schoolgirl semifinal at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor on Wednesday morning.
Third seed Ellsworth, 17-3, will take on 19-0 Old Town in Saturday’s 2 p.m. Class B North title game.
Ellsworth will be seeking its first regional title since 1992.
Second seed Caribou finished at 16-4.
Boles came off the bench and scored 18 points, grabbed three rebounds, had three steals and dished out two important assists.
Ellsworth leading scorer and rebounder Jaffray, who had to sit for a sizable portion of the game due to foul trouble, had 24 points and hauled down 10 rebounds.
Abby Radel had 14 points and Addison Atherton came off the bench and produced seven points and seven rebounds. Lily Bean chipped in with six rebounds and two steals to go with four points.
Sophomore standout Madelyn Deprey scored 24 points for Caribou and she also had 10 rebounds, three steals, two assists and two blocked shots.
Madelyn Morrow had 13 points and five rebounds and Selina Savage had six points, five rebounds and two steals. Carly Morrow tallied five points and 11 rebounds for the Vikings.
Boles came off the bench in the first half and hit a long 3-pointer during a 10-0 spurt in the second quarter that snapped a 17-17 tie and gave Ellsworth the lead for good.
Ellsworth outscored Caribou 18-9 in the second period as the Vikings shot just 2-for-13 from the floor.
Jaffray returned to the floor with 2:57 left in the half after sitting out since the 3:01 mark of the first period due to foul trouble and she scored the final five points of the half to make it 32-20.
Caribou cut it to 38-30 with three minutes left in the third period but Boles nailed a three off a Bean pass to trigger a 15-6 run over the remainder of the quarter to all but sew up the win.
During that run, Boles had assists on a jumper from the corner by Jaffray and a three by Atherton, made a steal, and closed out the quarter with a three of her own.
“[Boles] had a little bit of a rough first half but that’s all right. She came out in the second half and really kind of took that game over a little bit and stretched out the lead,” said Ellsworth coach Andy Pooler. “And for a freshman in a big moment like this, that’s pretty cool.”
He said Boles and Atherton were “flat-out awesome.”
“This is the first time I’ve been on a team when I haven’t been a starter,” Boles said. “That has been a major, major difference for me but, as the season went along, I’ve been able to adjust to it.
“That was crazy what I just did. I can’t believe I did that,” she added.
“She has been a major part of our bench. We have three people who can come in and score like that and that’s been an incredible asset to our team,” Jaffray said.
Jaffray also said it was the team’s best game of the season “by far.”