BANGOR- The Foxcroft Ponies defeated Presque Isle 37-25 in a class B Northern Maine regional semifinal game played Wednesday night at the Cross Insurance Center.
Abi Simpson scored eight points and pulled down 10 rebounds. She did a lot of her damage in the second half. The Ponies trailed 18-12 at halftime.
“We did a little better job in the third quarter, moving the ball. We did much better in the fourth quarter,” We stepped up on the boards. Simpson went from like one rebound to 10.”
The status of Presque Isle leading scorer Emily Wheaton was unknown coming into the contest. The Ponies prepared for all situations. Foxcroft didn’t know her status until the starting lineups were introduced. Wheaton did end up playing, scoring eight points (6-7 FT).
“The last few days in practice we have been doing defensive schemes with Wheaton and defensive schemes without Wheaton,”Smith said. “We came in, seeing her in a boot and thought she wasn’t playing. She came out and suited up.”
With the game close in the fourth quarter, Smith called on freshman guard Olivia Wesley. In her first appearance of the day, Wesley drained a three pointer that expanded the Ponies lead.
“We talked about that a little bit in practice. She doesn’t hurt us any. She is good defensively. She has a really quick release on the three,”Smith said. “We said if their was an opportunity where she could get a quick one, we were going to send her in for that. She did it perfectly.”
Grace Bickford scored seven points and grabbed four rebounds. Mackenzie Beaudry added six points and had six rebounds. Abbie Bourget put in five points, while her sister Ali Bourget had four points and three steals. Kendra Ewer also had three points. Foxcroft (16-4) will play in the class B regional final game on Saturday afternoon at 2:05 PM.
Madison Michaud put in four points, while Kasey Haley and Emily Lagerstrom added three points each. Presque Isle finishes the season with a 15-5 record.
Thank you to the following businesses for sponsoring Eastern Maine Sports coverage of Tourney 2017.
