The sixth-seeded Mount Desert Island girls basketball team started four seniors and a junior in their Class B North quarterfinal against a third-seeded Maranacook of Readfield team that started three sophomores, a freshman and a senior.
And that experience paid huge dividends.
Mount Desert Island outscored Maranacook 20-0 in the first period and cruised to a 64-42 victory at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor to earn a berth in Wednesday’s 2 p.m. semifinal against the winner of the Old Town-Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield game.
MDI is now 14-6 with six wins in its last seven games while Maranacook finished up at 13-6.
Senior forward Mollie Gray had 11 of her game-high 19 points in the first quarter, nine coming on 3-pointers, and the Trojans forced nine turnovers over the opening eight minutes. Maranacook missed all six of its field goal attempts.
“We knew they were athletic but really young so we knew we needed to push it from the start and once we got a good lead, we wanted to build on it,” said Gray.
The Trojans implemented an extended 2-3 zone and executed it perfectly.
“We like to get into the passing lanes. We’ve been working on it. And we’ve been trying to execute better to get steals and we did tonight,” Gray added.
They also used their superior height to score a lot of second-chance points off offensive rebounds.
Gray had 16 first-half points on 6-for-11 shooting from the floor including a 4-for-8 showing beyond the 3-point arc.
“I’ve been struggling with my outside shot quite a bit. It really felt good to make them tonight,” she said.
Gray also hauled down eight rebounds and dished out two assists. Junior forward Lexi Tozier complemented her with 14 points and six rebounds and senior forward Sophia Brophy produced 12 points and six rebounds. Sophomore Lily Norwood came off the bench and nailed three 3-pointers for nine points and senior forward Aleksandra Hanley had eight points and four rebounds along with three steals.
To their credit, the scrappy Black Bears never quit. They were led by their only senior, Natalie Mohlar. Mohlar recorded 17 points, six steals and four rebounds. Sophomore Celia Bergdahl had nine points and seven rebounds and freshman Cooper Davis had six points and five rebounds. Sophomore Hadley Farwell had five points and four rebounds.