BANGOR, Maine – Senior guard Ava Lerman poured in a game-high 21 points and junior guard Madi Cyr had seven second-half points and four fourth-quarter rebounds to lead Wisdom High School from St. Agatha to a 41-26 victory over Katahdin High of Stacyville in the girls Class S North championship game at the Cross Insurance Center Saturday morning.
Lerman also had six steals, three rebounds and two assists.
“I’m speechless,” said an elated Lerman. “I’ve been close too many times and to be able to win it my senior year is hard to explain.”
Lerman’s 21 points gave her 79 in Wisdom’s three tourney victories.
She said they threw a “curve” at Katahdin with their swarming 1-3-1 zone defense.
“They weren’t expecting it and we executed,” said the 5-foot-3 Lerman, who will play basketball at Bangor’s Husson University next season.
The aggressive 1-3-1 forced 21 Katahdin turnovers and limited the Cougars to a 10-for-35 shooting performance from the floor.
Katahdin coach Craig Hartsgrove said they were prepared for it but noted that the Pioneers “do a really good job applying pressure and we couldn’t get any offensive continuity.”
And that impacted the Cougars’ defense as well, the Katahdin coach said. He said that 41 points was “way too many” to give up against Wisdom.
“The 1-3-1 is organized chaos at times. Sometimes that’s what the 1-3-1 does,” Hartsgrove added. “It stresses every position, especially on the high side of it, and if you can’t pass your way through it, it’s a struggle. And we struggled with that today.”
The Pioneers shot 12-for-28 from the floor.
Hartsgrove also said Lerman was the best athlete on the floor and is in most games.
“They won, they deserved it, they were the better team today,” Hartsgrove said.
Cyr finished with seven points, six rebounds and two assists and freshman forward Peyton Roy had six points and six rebounds for the 20-1 winners.
Wisdom, regional champion for the first time since 1998, will face Valley High of Bingham in next Saturday’s 11:05 a.m. state championship game at the Augusta Civic Center.
Senior Ayanna Lester had 13 points and seven rebounds to pace 18-3 Katahdin, whose only three losses this season were to Wisdom. Freshman Polly Cullen had six points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.
The Pioneers led 11-2 with 6:10 left in the half thanks to Lerman’s seven points.
But the Cougars closed out the half on a 9-2 run to pull within two.
Dakotah Stevens started the rally with a 3-pointer from the left side; Cullen converted an offensive rebound and then fed Emily McNally for a short baseline jumper before passing to Lester for a seven-foot jumper from the right side.
Wisdom used a 9-0 in the third period to break a 16-16 tie and take a lead it would never relinquish. Lerman had six of the nine points and also assisted on Kelsie Daigle’s basket.
A traditional 3-point play by Lester cut the lead to 25-19 but the Pioneers scored the next five points when Lerman fed Cyr for a base line floater and sank a free throw before Cyr capped the important run with a fall-away jump shot from the right side of the lane.
Cyr had missed her first four field goal attempts in the game before hitting those two.
“None of my shots were falling but I just kept taking them because my coaches have a lot of confidence in me. My teammates were there for me and they finally started falling,” Cyr said.
Cyr helped prevent the Cougars from coming back with her four defensive rebounds in the fourth quarter.
“Rebounding has been one of our key things this whole season. Just boxing out and rebounding and I have been trying to do that,” said the 5-foot-4 Cyr.