For the second time in three years, John Bapst has been paired with and defeated Ellsworth in a Girls’ Class B North Play-in game. In a situation not uncommon for competitive basketball players in Northern Maine, girls on both sides of the court had also been teammates in the past. Ellsworth Junior Trinity Montigny, the leading scorer in Big East Basketball at 16.6 points a game, had played on a Black Bear North AAU team with Bapst Juniors Sydney Ellis, Emily Mock and Jayda Smith. In fact, it was Montigny who first alerted the Bapst players of a time change for the game on Ellis’ social media post. The Ellsworth boys’ game against Winslow was moved back 24 hours due to the snow storm.
Bapst will face undefeated Waterville in the quarterfinals for the second year in a row, but the similarities end there. In 2018, Bapst had 5 multi-year starter seniors at the helm. This year, only 3 of the 14 member team had any significant varsity playing time coming into the season. At the 2018 team banquet Coach Chris Woodside noted that 85% of the team’s offense would be graduating and asked who would step up.
Sophomore Lacey Scanlon of Bucksport took the challenge, leading the team at 10.6 points per game. She was followed by Mock, of Holden, at 6.4 points per game, Senior Tianna Cyr, of Glenburn, at 6.1 and Ellis, of Veazie, at 5.8. Scanlon and Cyr led Bapst to the most steals in the Big East Conference. Montigny was 9th in conference steals. In other conference top ten categories, Montigny, Mock and Scanlon were on the 3 point percentage list, Montigny and Scanlon made the free throw percentage list, and Cyr and Montigny were among assist leaders.
In the Tuesday night game at Ellsworth, Bapst jumped out to an 11-2 advantage and never trailed. Relentless defense helped Bapst overcome a significant number of turnovers and Ellsworth was hampered by foul trouble. Bapst led 19-10 at the half, 27-16 after three and held on despite a 4th quarter challenge by Ellsworth to finish 34-27. Montigny, Cyr and Scanlon all finished with 12 points. Smith, of Bangor, contributed 9 rebounds, with 6 coming in the 2nd quarter. The Eagles finish the season at 13-6while the 7-12 Crusaders will advance, recalling that in their first game at Waterville, they were down by only one with 2:03 to go, and hoping to pull off an even bigger upset in the next round.
Story courtesy of Elisabeth Fowlie Mock
