BANGOR- The Winslow Black Raiders girls basketball came into the Maine Principals’ Association class B North Tournament as the number six seed. They ended the tournament as the top team after a 43-39 overtime win over Presque Isle in the regional championship game on Saturday afternoon.
The Black Raiders defeated third seed MDI in the quarterfinal round, second seed John Bapst in a semifinal game, and the fifth seeded Wildcats in the title game at the Cross Insurance Center.
“We just knew we had to play every game tough,”Winslow junior forward Paige Trask said. “We had no pressure, we just came out and played.”
Trask came out red-hot. She made her first three shots, all from beyond the three-point arc.
“We came in knowing they (Presque Isle) were going to play a zone. We knew the shots were going to be open, we knew that we had to take them,”Trask said. “We were hoping they would and they did. It was a good start.”
Presque Isle took a 6-3 lead on a Maggie Castonguay three pointer in the first quarter. Winslow would hold only one lead (15-14) the rest of regulation. Meaghan Bernard gave the Black Raiders an advantage in overtime. Bernard scored all 13 of her points after halftime.
“Meaghan (Bernard) has been huge for us all season. Stepping up when we needed her,”Winslow coach Lindsey Withee said. “She (Bernard) did a great job, especially in overtime.”
Withee won a state title as a player for Nokomis. She will now bring her Winslow (17-5) team into the class B state title game against Lake Region on Friday, March 2nd at 7:05 PM at the Cross Insurance Center.
“I won states as a player,”Withee said. “It is so much more rewarding as a coach to see your players go through it.”
Emily Wheaton came in averaging 35.5 points in the first two tournament games for Presque Isle. Winslow held Wheaton to 16 points.
“With all due respect she (Wheaton) is a great player. We had to shut her down,”Trask said. “We knew what she was going to do, we just had to play great D.”
Withee added, “we just put our best defenders on her. We were going to make her teammates beat us.”
Winslow held Presque Isle to three points in the final 12 minutes of play. Bernard added seven rebounds to go along with her 13 points. Haley Ward recorded 10 points, seven rebounds, and two assists. Trask had nine, while Bodhi Littlefield, Wesley Littlefield, and Silver Clukey had five, three, and two points respectively. It is the first regional title for Winslow since 2005.
Castonguay had nine points on 3 three pointers, Madison Michaud had eight points in the third quarter. Christina Skidgel and Sydney Thompson finished with three points each. Presque Isle finishes the season with a 15-6 record.
