The top-ranked Bangor Christian girls basketball team was without one of its best players for most of the game on Wednesday, after sophomore guard Annie Allen had to leave with a tooth injury.
Allen said she took another player’s shoulder to the face while going up for a rebound in the first quarter, and that it loosened one of her front teeth.
She did not return to the Class D North semifinal against No. 4 Penobscot Valley of Howland, and went to have the injury examined by her uncle, who happens to be a local dentist.
“I just kind of went for a rebound and a shoulder went in my mouth,” Allen said. The blow knocked one of her front teeth loose and she soon left the court.
“It was just kind of hanging on by like a thread, pretty much,” she said about her tooth. “But we fixed it, so it’s fine.”
Her uncle was able to treat her fast, Allen said, and she later returned to the Cross Center and rejoined her teammates after the game. Her older sister, senior Mary Allen, is the team’s top scorer, while Annie is the second-leading scorer.
Mary Allen said that losing her sister in the game changed things for the Patriots, but gave credit to Penobscot Valley.
“That was one of the biggest impacts in the game. We were already fighting a couple of sicknesses,” Mary Allen said. “No excuses given. Howland played a great game. But losing Annie was huge. She gives us another ball-handler and scorer and she does a lot on the defensive end that people don’t notice.”
Annie Allen acknowledged that she was still in a little bit of pain after the game.
“But it’s fine,” she said. “It could be worse.”
Allen’s absence surely loomed large in the contest, which Penobscot Valley won 52-37 over the top-seeded Patriots. Bangor Christian had beaten Penobscot Valley all three times the teams faced each other during the regular season.
Bangor Christian head coach Brock Bradford acknowledged that losing Allen was a factor in the game, but first credited the Howlers for their performance.
“Give them props, they played a good game,” Bradford said.
The Patriots coach also noted that his daughter, freshman guard Rivers Bradford, was questionable heading into the game with a stomach bug.
“It was going to be a tough matchup regardless, and being down Annie, who is a big part of our team and not being at full strength certainly was a contributing factor,” Brock Bradford said. “But at the end of the day, I felt like we competed. They executed a little bit better than we did.”
The coach didn’t see exactly how Allen sustained the tooth injury in Wednesday’s game.
“All I know is it was bleeding a lot when she came out, and the trainer just said that she was going to get it dealt with,” Bradford said.
Penobscot Valley senior guard Rylee Moulton said Annie Allen’s loss was definitely a factor in the game.
“That gave Mary one less stud to pass to and put more of a workload on her. That limited their shot attempts and shot-making. Annie can shoot,” Moulton said. “I hope she recovers quickly.”
The Patriots, who scored at least 61 points in 17 of their previous 19 games, shot just 30.4% from the floor compared with Penobscot Valley’s 51.2%.