BANGOR- Megan Peach scored a game high 23 points, including 13 in the second half, as the Dexter Tigers withstood a late rally by the Stearns Minutemen to capture a 47-44 Class C schoolgirl semifinal basketball win at the Cross Insurance Center Friday night.
Dexter, the #5 seed in the tournament, and also had handed Stearns their only regular season loss on the very last day of the regular season, started strong. The Tigers quickly jumped out to a 5-0 lead. Stearns was able to take their only lead of the game at 9-8, but the Tigers scored five of the last seven points of the first quarter to regain a 13-11 advantage.
Dexter was able to build back a five point lead in the second quarter, before Stearns again cut the gap to just 24-22 at halftime.
Dexter built their largest lead of the game in the third quarter by outscoring Stearns 19-8, including nine of those points from Peach, to take a 41-30 lead into the final quarter.
The Minutemen simply wouldn’t go quietly though, going on a 9-0 run over the first six minutes of the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 41-39 with two minutes to play. A layup from Dexters Kayli Cunningham and a putback layup by Peach was able to push the lead back to 45-39 Tigers. After two foul shots from Stearns made it 45-41, Peach nailed two from the foul line, to make it 47-41 with a minute remaining. Stearns guard Emma Alley would nail a long distance three-pointer from the left wing though to make it 47-44 with 45 seconds remaining. “I told the kids to just slow down, it’s hard because of the moment, situation, the environment, and everything else. Just try not to do too much, stay within yourselves. We have tried to do the same thing since day one, thats probably very cliche’, but that’s who we are”, said Dexter coach Jody Grant. A Dexter turnover gave Stearns another chance, but the Minutemen came up empty. Peach was fouled and sent to the line where there was a violation on the 1 and 1 bonus situation, giving Stearns one more chance with 8.1 seconds left. Emma Alley got a good look at another long distance three-pointer to tie the game from the right wing, but the ball bounced off the back of the rim and was volleyballed around as the remaining seconds ran off the clock.
Stearns, who finishes a great season and tournament run with a record of 18-2 and the top seed in Class C North, was led by Emma Alley who had 19 points, three rebounds, and two steals. Julia Stanley added eight points, four rebounds, and one blocked shot. Katherine Alley also chipped in seven points, three rebounds, and two steals. Both teams struggled with turnovers in the contest as Dexter had 20, and Stearns had 15. Dexter shot 14-27 from the foul line, while Stearns was 15-20.
Peach added 21 rebounds, three blocked shots, and three steals to her point total to lead Dexter (15-6). “Some teams if they try to take me away underneath, I will try to shoot outside a little more, but they (Stearns) don’t, because I don’t think they match up as well, just because they are a little bit smaller. So he (Coach Grant) told me to stay underneath, cause that’s the matchup we had and it worked”, said Peach. Cunningham added 12 points and five rebounds. Abigail Webber also contributed six points. “This means everything, more than you can imagine. We go and we play and we work for it all the time”, said Webber on advancing to the Northern Maine final on Saturday.
Dexter will now play in the Class C Northern Maine final Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. when they face George Stevens Academy (18-2), who knocked off PCHS in the other semifinal game played Friday night.
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