A youthful basketball team will often approach championship moments with nerves and apprehension.
The Ellsworth girls, which feature 11 freshmen and sophomores, showcased nerves of steel in that situation Saturday afternoon.
The third-ranked Eagles withstood every punch top-ranked and undefeated Old Town threw at them, finishing on an 11-3 run to win their first Class B North regional championship in three decades with a 59-51 victory at a loud Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
“That’s just a testament to who they are as people,” said Ellsworth head coach Andy Pooler, whose 18-3 Eagles will take on South champion Spruce Mountain next Saturday at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.
Ellsworth hadn’t won a regional championship since 1992.
Old Town, which had beaten the Eagles by five in the regular season, wrapped up 20-1 and suffered its second consecutive regional final loss.
In a back and forth second half that featured multiple lead changes and ties, the young Eagles, led by sophomore guard Abby Radel’s 21 points (14 in the second half), played with the poise of a team that had been in this situation a multitude of times.
“They’re loose,” Pooler said. “They’ve played a lot of basketball the last two seasons. Sometimes you’ve just got to sit back, watch them play and enjoy the ride.”
After the Coyotes’ Taylor Loring hit a 3-pointer from the left corner with 1:20 left in regulation to give Old Town a 1-point lead, Lily Bean’s foul-line pull-up on Ellsworth’s subsequent possession gave the Eagles the lead for good.
A steal and layup from Elizabeth Boles and two free throws from Morgan Clifford off another steal gave Ellsworth some breathing room, and Loring’s perimeter shot was Old Town’s only field goal in the final five minutes.
“We just came out and got on their shooters and it went our way,” said Radel, who also had four rebounds.
The Eagles came out rolling early thanks to a tenacious player to player defense, racing out to an 18-9 lead early in the second quarter while Old Town forward Gabrielle Cody spent most of the first half on the bench with three fouls.
But the Eagles had to withstand a furious second quarter from Saige Evans, who scored 11 points in the period for the Coyotes to spark a 17-3 run.
Fittingly, it was Radel who gave Ellsworth needed momentum with a corner 3-pointer in the final seconds of the half, but it didn’t come as a surprise that Old Town woke up offensively.
“Evans is a stud,” said Pooler. “We had to take her away but we also couldn’t let anyone beat us.”
“[Coach said] to just keep doing what we were doing because we were playing fine in the beginning,” Radel said.
Radel’s eight third-quarter points gave the Eagles a needed spark, and once Cody re-entered the game, Ellsworth did a phenomenal job of keeping her out of the paint and closing out on Old Town’s shooters.
“We just got stop after stop after stop,” Pooler said. “If you can get a group who’s got a chip on their shoulder and can play a little defense, you’re going to win some games.”
Ellsworth’s defense was exceptional down the stretch, holding Old Town to three field goals in the fourth quarter while consistently denying the taller Coyotes any second-chance opportunities.
Boles was the other Eagle in double figures with 10 points while Lily Bean and Grace Jaffrey each grabbed six rebounds.
Evans finished with 26 points and eight rebounds for Old Town and Loring had 11 points. Alexis Degrasse contributed six rebounds and three steals.
