BANGOR, Maine — On the biggest basketball stage of her young life Saturday night, Brooklynn Raymond did not disappoint.
And in the process, the Penobscot Valley High girls made history.
Raymond scored 13 of her game-high 21 points during a second-quarter surge in which the Howlers blitzed Hall-Dale of Farmingdale 16-7 and undefeated PVHS never looked back en route to its first gold ball with a 57-37 Class C state championship win over the Bulldogs at the Cross Insurance Center.
Coach Nate Case’s club caps off an unblemished record at 22-0 while the defending Class C South champ Bulldogs wrap up 18-4.
Both teams struggled to find their shooting legs early, with Rylee Moulton’s layup three minutes into the game accounting for the contest’s first field goal.
The Bulldogs’ struggles were primarily thanks to the Howlers’ suffocating full-court trap, which forced 16 first-half turnovers.
The decisive surge came early in the second quarter in which Raymond scored eight points in a 40-second span early in the second quarter as the Howlers opened up a 24-4 lead.
That burst included two 3-pointers, and came as a bit of a shock to the sophomore guard.
“I honestly wasn’t planning (on it),” Raymond admitted. “Then I saw one go in and it was like, give me the ball, I’m hot.”
The Howlers certainly kept doing so, as Raymond hit 5 of her 6 field-goal attempts in the second quarter while snatching eight first-half rebounds, while the interior defense of Shay Ireland did not allow the Bulldogs any penetration.
Raymond, who finished the night with 12 boards, was at a loss for words after the game.
“Honestly, I’m kind of speechless,” she said. “It means the world.”
PVHS opened the game on a 6-0 run as Hall-Dale missed seven of its first eight shots before a pullup jumper from Torie Tibbetts.
The Howlers punched right back with a layup from Lila Cummings, a 3-pointer from Raymond and a 3-point play from Moulton after she corralled a steal near midcourt.
The defensive collaboration of Cummings and Ellie Austin consistently swallowed the Bulldogs up near midcourt, and both players used their length and athleticism to generate turnovers and subsequent opportunities in transition.
“Lila’s defense in the middle was huge,” said Case, whose club practiced for two hours Saturday morning. “She was everywhere for us. She did a great job.”
The Bulldogs lived up to their nickname in the third quarter, with Jade Graham scoring eight points in that span to help Hall-Dale get within 37-23, but a 3-point play from Austin and a Mouton layup off a Cummings steal restored some order for the Howlers.
Hall-Dale’s fight came as no surprise to Case, as the Bulldogs, like the Howlers, have been in plenty of championship moments in multiple sports.
“That’s a great team, I was really nervous,” Case said. “Hall-Dale’s a great team and they’re experienced but we rose up at the right time. Each player had a little moment and they played well.”
Austin, who had 17 points, snatched six steals for the Howlers while gathering seven rebounds. Moulton finished with 13 points.
Graham finished with 15 points, with 13 coming in the second half, for the Bulldogs. Tibbetts had eight points and seven rebounds.
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the first name of Penobscot Valley player Brooklynn Raymond.