Mackenzie Worcester led Washburn High School to four state Class D schoolgirl basketball state championships as a dynamic point guard, concluding her remarkable career with 2,001 points.
The mother of two who now goes by Mackenzie Turner was inducted into the Washburn High School Hall of Fame. She added another Hall of Fame honor for her play at Bangor’s Husson University.
She made her Class C North Tournament debut as a head coach on Tuesday night and she earned her first tourney win. Her Caribou girls overcame a nine-point first-half deficit to beat Dexter 43-40 in overtime in their quarterfinal at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
She was an assistant at Caribou last year when the Vikings won the state Class B title.
Turner said she wasn’t nervous before the Dexter game but that changed during the contest.
“It got a little tight towards the end of the game, so I asked my assistants for advice,” Turner said. “They always give me solid advice so it helps settle the nerves.”
She is assisted by her father, Larry Worcester, along with Shawn Savage and Mia Theriault.
Turner said coaching her first tournament game was fun.
“It was just as exciting as it was when I was a player,” she said.
Turner said she never got nervous as a player “because our teams were always hyped up and were always pretty confident.”
Her fifth-seeded Vikings team will now face undefeated top seed Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln in Thursday’s 8:30 p.m. semifinal. And she said she was “really excited for our players.”
She started three sophomores and two freshmen and has had to negotiate the season without Liv Adams, who was the team’s second-leading scorer a year ago but was lost for the season due to knee surgery.
She said Adams was going to be her go-to player prior to the injury, and felt Adams was going to average a double-double.
“What we were hoping for all season was just to get here. And to get here after the loss of Liv Adams and get a win is even better,” Turner said. “We have a really young team without a lot of tournament experience, but they handled the pressure well down the stretch.”
Caribou will take a 10-9 record into the game against Mattanawcook Academy. But six of the losses have come to Class B North Tournament teams Old Town, Ellsworth and Presque Isle and two more came at the hands of Mattanawcook Academy.
Turner is 29 years old and her players enjoy playing for a youthful coach.
“I think it’s nice. She gets our humor,” grinned Brynn Hamilton.
Sophomore Quinn Corrigan, who led the team in scoring on Tuesday night, had similar input about their first-year coach.
“She really knows the game well,” Corrigan said. “We enjoy her a lot.”