By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
BANGOR, Maine — The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same for the Presque Isle girls basketball team. No. 1 Presque Isle (19-0) put on a commanding performance Saturday evening dismantling No. 9 Gardiner (12-8) with relative ease, 67-42, in Eastern Class B quarterfinal action at the Cross Insurance Center.
In so doing, the Wildcats proved the two-time defending state Class B champions were not yet ready to relinquish their crown.
Presque Isle now faces No. 5 Foxcroft Academy (13-7) on Wednesday at 8:35 p.m. in the semifinals. The Ponies advanced to the semis with a 33-25 victory over No. 13 Waterville earlier in the day. That game will be televised on Maine Public Broadcasting Network.
Presque Isle beat Foxcroft Academy twice on the season — winning 75-35 in a blowout at Presque Isle Dec. 21; and narrowly winning 50-48 in overtime at Dover-Foxcroft Jan. 11.
Junior center Krystal Kingsbury led the charge for Presque Isle against Gardiner, tallying 23 points, many of which came from strong moves from the post. Junior guard Hannah Graham added 20 and sophomore center Regan Nelson chipped in 13.
For Gardiner, Lauren Chadwick netted 14 points and Morgan Carver added seven.
“It’s good to be a No. 1 seed to actual survive the day,” Presque Isle coach Jeff Hudson said. “I actually thought we played pretty well offensively.”
Earlier that day on the boys’ side, top-ranked Oceanside was upset by No. 8 Hermon, 68-63.
Gardiner struggled to match Presque Isle’s size as the Wildcats pounded the ball inside to Nelson, Graham and Kingsbury with relative ease and the Wildcats also controlled the boards on both ends of the floor.
“We thought they (Gardiner) would have a tough time with Regan and Krystal inside,” Hudson said. “If we start making more of our shots from the outside, we will be really tough to stop.”
Gardiner may have scored the game’s first two baskets, grabbing a quick 4-0 lead, but then it was all Presque Isle as the Wildcats scored nine straight points and never trailed again.
“Our energy was good the whole game,” Hudson said. “We’re a team where we can get on a run like that 9-0 run and have two or three of those runs throughout the game.”
Presque Isle tallied just two 3-pointers in the contest. It was the lowest number of converted 3-point attempts this season, said Ralph Michaud, assistant coach for the Wildcats.
The Wildcats have been on an amazing run in recent years and are currently in the midst of a 63-game winning streak.
“We never even talk about the streak,” Hudson said. “We just focus on winning one more game.”
GARDINER (42)
Weymouth 1 0-0 2, L. Chadwick 5 2-2 14, N. Chadwick 1 0-0 2, Carver 3 1-2 7, Luken, Couture, Quirion 1 1-2 3, Toman, Tomberlin, Day 2 2-2 6, Dunn 0 1-2 1, Cone 2 1-2 5, Boyington 1 0-0 2. Totals: 16 8-12 42. 3-pointers —L. Chadwick 2.
PRESQUE ISLE (67)
Hudson, Kinney, Legassie 1 2-2 4, Kinney 1 0-0 2, Ackerson, Williams 2 0-0 5, Seward 0 0-1 0, Graham 8 3-4 20, Lagerstrom, Wilcox, Kingsbury 0 5-9 23, Nelson 5 3-4 13. Totals: 26 13-20 67. 3-pointers — Williams, Graham.
