Wildcat and Beaver girls
out to defend state championships
11 teams qualify for basketball post-season
By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
A pair of defending state champions appear ready to defend their titles as central Aroostook-area basketball squads get their post-season under way.
CHANDLER GUERRETTE 
of the Presque Isle Wildcats leads a fast break during a game against John Bapst earlier this season. Guerrette and her PI teammates are once again the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Maine Class B playoffs.
The playoffs got under way Tuesday with the preliminary round, with Fort Fairfield, Easton and Central Aroostook competing for the chance to play in the final year of games at the Bangor Auditorium.
By virtue of their perfect regular season records, both the Presque Isle and Washburn teams earned automatic berths into the quarterfinals as top seeds in their respective divisions.
The Ashland girls were the only team from the region that did not make it into the post-season, falling short with their 3-15 record and No. 17 placement in the Eastern Maine Class D Heal Point rankings.
A team-by-team look at the playoff qualifiers in varsity basketball follows:
Last year, the Presque Isle Wildcats finally got past nemesis Nokomis, after two years of being eliminated by the Warriors, en route to their first state championship since 2006 and fourth since 1990.
Gone from that team are Kayla Richards and Chelsea Nickerson, who were key players in the run to the title. But PI was able to continue that success throughout the 2012-13 regular season thanks to a solid core of returnees.
“We had hoped it would be another great year,” said coach Jeff Hudson of the Class B Wildcats. “We had a lot of talent coming back, and we just have a lot of explosiveness and weapons on offense.”
Presque Isle also takes pride in its suffocating defense. A huge void in that department was created when Nickerson graduated, but the team developed quickly into a formidable defensive squad.
“They all play well on the defensive end,” Hudson said, “and that triggers our offense.”
Presque Isle averaged over 70 points per game during its undefeated season. They were challenged only twice, both times by No. 5 Mount Desert Island, but still won by nine- and 14-point margins. The Wildcats led Old Town by just four points at halftime of their Jan. 19 home game, but ended up winning by 29.
The squad’s leadership has come from its four senior starters — Chandler Guerrette, Megan Ireland, Karlee Bernier and Meredith Stewart.
“They’ve led us collectively, and I’m hoping they want it as bad this year as they did last,” Hudson said.
The group has had a combined 70-2 regular season record, including no losses the past two seasons. They went 36-0 at home, own four Big East Conference titles and have now entered the tourney as the No. 1 seed all four years.
“It’s the most impressive run a group of seniors has ever had here,” Hudson said.
Guerrette, a 1,000-point scorer for her career, averaged 15.2 points per game and her backcourt mate, Megan Ireland, comes in with a 12.2 ppg average.
Bernier is a three-point threat and the new defensive stopper. while Stewart broke her nose prior to the team’s first game and has bounced back to be a force inside.
Hannah Graham and Krystal Kingsbury, both sophomores, average 11.2 and 9.3 ppg, respectively.
Presque Isle awaits the winner of the Old Town-Ellsworth prelim. That quarterfinal is set for Saturday at 3:05 p.m.
MACKENZIE WORCESTER 
of the defending state champion Washburn Beavers gets ready to use a screen from teammate Carmen Bragg against the press applied by Fort Fairfield’s Jessica Goshorn (20) and Sydney Churchill during an early-season game.
The Washburn Beavers have been equally dominant in going 18-0. The team did not lose a senior to graduation from the state championship squad that raced past Western Maine champ Richmond for the second consecutive year.
The team does have a new coach in Diana Trams, but the Beaver players made the adjustment throughout the season and appear ready to make a run at a third consecutive gold ball.
“It has been a gradual process of blending what worked well last year with adapting to the new team that we have,” Trams said. “I have been able to identify what our strengths are as well as other areas where we need some improvement.
“Right now, we are focusing on what we do well and trying to fine tune that,” she said.
Washburn played the first half of the season without the services of injured sophomore Joan Overman, who had a rotator cuff injury that sidelined her until early January. The athletic Overman appears close to full strength and has blended in with the other key returnees, a list that includes juniors Carmen Bragg, Carsyn Koch and Nicole Olson; sophomore Mackenzie Worcester and lone senior Olivia Doody.
Worcester is the leading scorer for the second consecutive season and joins Bragg, Koch and Overman as the keys in the team’s relentless pressure attack.
Doody is a solid post player and Olson is a perimeter threat.
The Beavers who are No. 1 in the Class D rankings and in the quarterfinals will meet the winner of the Limestone-MSSM vs. Penobscot Valley prelim at 3:35 p.m. Monday.
LOGAN BUBAR 
of the Fort Fairfield Tigers drives in for a fast-break layup during a contest against the Hodgdon Hawks earlier this winter. Bubar, a junior guard, was a key member of the Tiger team that was seeded fourth entering this year’s playoffs.
The Fort Fairfield Tigers fared just fine this past season despite losing the team’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder, Amanda Hotham, to graduation and also trying to recover from last year’s loss as the No. 2 team to 15th-ranked Southern Aroostook in one of the biggest playoff surprises ever in Eastern Maine basketball history.
Fort Fairfield went 14-4 on the season and is ranked fourth in EM Class D. The team hosted Shead in the prelim round Tuesday, with the winner moving on to play the winner of the Machias-Easton game in Monday’s 2:05 p.m. quarterfinal matchup.
Junior Whitney McNamee and senior Sydney Churchill have been the top scoring threats for coach Larry Gardner’s team. McNamee is a six-footer who can dominate inside, while Churchill is a talented perimeter player who has had some big games shooting the three.
Nicole Giberson, Logan Bubar, Jessica Goshorn and Janae Libby are others in the talented junior class. Senior Rebekah Pelkey and freshmen Taylor Churchill and Kayla Giberson are other contributors.
EASTON’S ALEXANDRA ALLEN 
reached for a rebound during her team’s home game against Washburn last Wednesday. The Bears claimed the 12th seed in Eastern Maine Class D.
The Easton Bears of coach Rachel Tomlinson had an up-and-down season, but still ended up 10-8 to clinch the No. 12 seed in the region. The Bears played at No. 5 Machias Tuesday in the preliminaries.
The team’s confidence heading into the playoff was high after staying within six points of top-ranked Washburn for much of the game in the regular season finale last Wednesday.
Seniors Carla Halvorson and Mindy Desmond have provided solid leadership to an otherwise young Bear squad. Cassandra Buck, a junior, became the team’s top rebounder and one of the top scorers, while center Hannah Ferris missed the latter part of the season with a knee injury, with Alexandra Allen stepping in to provide valuable minutes.
Kylee Carter and Taylor Brown are talented sophomore guards.
“We certainly are a defensive team, but our offense has started to come together late in the year,” Tomlinson said.
SARAH GRASS 
of the Central Aroostook Panthers puts up a shot during last year’s EM ‘D’ semifinal.
The Central Aroostook Panthers finished 6-12 after coming within a point of knocking off No. 4 Fort Fairfield Thursday. First-year coach Megan McCarthy has been led by senior forward Kayla Cushman, along with seniors Page Fletcher Sarah Grass and Breanna York and freshman Karli Levesque.
The Panthers travelled to East Millinocket Tuesday to play No. 2 Schenck in the prelims. The winner plays the Deer-Isle Stonington vs. Jonesport-Beals winner in the quarterfinals Saturday at 9:05 p.m.
