The Bangor Christian High School girls basketball team served notice on Tuesday night that people shouldn’t assume that defending state Class C champion Penobscot Valley High of Howland is a lock to claim the Class D North title.
Bangor Christian, behind transfer sisters Mary and Annie Allen from Central High in Corinth, snapped the Howlers’ 23-game winning streak with a 50-40 victory at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
Senior guard Mary Allen, who has already reached the 1,000-point plateau for her career, poured in 22 points and sophomore Annie Allen had 17 more to pace the undefeated Patriots to their fourth win of the season.
First-year head coach Brock Bradford said he was most pleased by his team’s defensive effort against a PVHS team that is “very capable of putting up big numbers” one year removed from a state championship.
“Holding them to 40 points is a big accomplishment for our team. We got a gritty performance from everybody that stepped on the floor,” said Bradford. “It was a total team defensive effort.”
The Howlers averaged 75.4 points per game in their 18 regular season wins a year ago.
“We played mostly man-to-man with an emphasis on their key players who can really light it up from the outside,” said Bradford, who was primarily referring to Brooklynn Raymond and Rylee Moulton. “We helped underneath the best we could on Lila (Cummings).”
Bradford also said they tried to limit their turnovers to prevent the Howlers from getting easy transition baskets off their pressure defense; slow the Howlers down a little bit and “make them work for good looks” and box out and rebound to limit PVHS’ second and third-chance attempts.
Mary Allen also had four rebounds, four assists, three steals and a blocked shot.
“It was a very complete game for her,” said Bradford.
Freshman Rivers Bradford, the daughter of Brock and wife and fellow Husson University Sports Hall of Famer Shelby (Pickering), contributed five points, three assists and a blocked shot; freshman Maris Kowalski had six rebounds, three steals, two points and an assist; junior Reese Starbird had five rebounds and two points and senior Lyndsie Durost chipped in with four rebounds and two points.
Starbird is a transfer from Piscataquis Community High School in Guilford.
“We did a good job coming out early and setting the tone both offensively and defensively, knowing they are a very talented team, experienced and well-coached,” said Bradford. “The girls played hard and committed to playing good defense the entire game.”
It was the first of three games between Bangor Christian and Penobscot Valley, which dropped down from C to D due to the Maine Principals Association’s statewide reclassification.
The two teams will meet again in Howland on Jan. 7 and on the Skip Chappelle Court in the University of Maine’s Memorial Gym on Jan. 27.
“Obviously, these are games you circle on the calendar and you really look forward to the chance to have a really good test to see where you’re at,” Bradford said. “I was very excited for our girls. It was a fun night. There was a lot of anticipation and excitement from everybody in the gym and I’m sure it will be the same for our next two matchups.”
Bangor Christian, which also has wins over Stearns of Millinocket (87-13), Deer Isle-Stonington (69-23) and Machias (70-46), will entertain Hodgdon at the Cross Insurance Center on Saturday at 4:30.
Bangor Christian went 15-3 during the regular season in 2024-25 and was the top seed for the D North tournament but was upset by fourth seed Schenck of East Millinocket, 35-29, in the semifinals.
PVHS, which is 2-1 after earning a 73-18 victory over Penquis High School in Milo, will travel to Lincoln on Monday for a 6 p.m. contest against Mattanawcook Academy in a rematch of last season’s C North final won by the Howlers 42-37.