BANGOR, Maine – The Penobscot Valley girls basketball team captured the state Class C title a year ago and now they look to make it two in a row — albeit in another class.
The Howlers, with several veterans who have already won three state titles in soccer to go with last year’s basketball championship, scored the game’s first nine points en route to a 53-37 victory over the youthful Machias High School Bulldogs in the Class D North final at the Cross Insurance Center on Saturday afternoon.
Junior guard Brooklynn Raymond pumped in a game-high 19 points and also had five assists, four rebounds and four steals for the 16-5 winners. Senior forward Lila Cummings had 12 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots. Senior guard Rylee Moulton scored nine points and dished out a game-high nine assists. She also had two steals.
Junior Abby Farley had an important 3-pointer to go with four rebounds and two steals. Sophomore forward Charlotte Brochu grabbed seven rebounds and had two points.
Penobscot Valley outrebounded Machias 27-15.
Sophomore forward Loretta Richardson led the 18-3 Bulldogs with 17 points and three rebounds to go with two blocked shots. Freshman guard Aubrey Wood had nine points, five assists and two steals. Sophomores Olivia Reynolds and Leah Libby had four points each. Reynolds also had five rebounds. Junior guard Felicity Kelley had five rebounds and a free throw.
“We played okay,” said Moulton. “We knew we were going to have a lull of a game compared to the high-intensity game against Bangor Christian on Wednesday.
“But we were composed, we took care of business. We handled adversity, foul trouble, all of the above. It was a gritty win,” added Moulton, who picked up her fourth foul in the third quarter.
Moulton hit a long buzzer-beating 3-pointer to close out the first quarter and give PVHS a 19-5 lead. Raymond added her own buzzer-beater from beyond the arc at the end of the first half. And Farley made it three buzzer-beating threes for her only points of the game at the end of the third period to give the Howlers a 41-27 lead.
“Those momentum shifts are awesome,” said Moulton. “Seeing a shot go in at the buzzer is an adrenaline rush. It gets us going.”
Cummings said those plays “get you hyped up for the next quarter.”
The Howlers led by 17 in the third period before Machias went on a 12-4 run to pull within nine.
But Penobscot Valley used a 7-2 run to restore a solid foothold in the game and Machias couldn’t get any closer than 12 the rest of the way.
“It definitely wasn’t our best game and we had our moments, but we brought it out when we really needed to in order to get the win,” Cummings said.
Moulton and Raymond went cold for a stretch in the second half but their teammates picked up the slack. Cummings had six points during a run of seven unanswered points in the fourth quarter.
“That’s one thing about our team. We don’t have just one or two people who can score,” Cummings said. “Our whole team can score and that really helps.”
Penobscot Valley head coach Nate Case said balanced scoring is always important.
“As a player develops through the year, you hope that they see all their work pay off,” Case said.
Machias coach Scotty Reynolds, who started two juniors, two sophomores and a freshman, said his team came out a little slow.
“We’re young and we may have been a little intimidated. We got behind, we started clawing our way back,” Reynolds said. “We made a heckuva’ run in the third quarter and it just kind of imploded. We learned a lot today. Next year, we want to be where they are. They were the better team and they were better today.”
The Howlers will play against Mount Abram at 2:35 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28 at the Augusta Civic Center.