By Kevin Sjoberg
Sports Reporter
BANGOR, Maine — The Fort Fairfield Tigers handled Van Buren fairly easily twice during the regular season thanks to a dominant inside game.With a trip to the Eastern Maine Class D semifinals on the line Thursday night, that inside game was close to nonexistent and the Tigers were unable to overcome that.
Fort Fairfield let a 10-point lead early in the third quarter slip away due to a lengthy scoring drought and lost, 39-37, in a game held at the Cross Insurance Center.
The victory allowed the second-seeded Crusaders to advance to the EM finals for the first time since 1977. The Tigers, ranked third in the division, ended the season with a 15-6 record.
Fort Fairfield held a 28-18 advantage following a Janae Libby three-pointer 34 seconds into the second half. From that point on, however, the Tigers struggled on the offensive end and went scoreless for 11 minutes and 21 seconds.
Van Buren reeled off 14 consecutive points during the stretch to grab a 32-28 lead and although FF got to within one point on two occasions, they could not tie it or go ahead and star senior guard Parise Rossignol hit on five of six free throw attempts in the final minute to secure the victory.
The key in the game was the Crusaders’ ability to shut down FF’s 6-foot-1 senior center Whitney McNamee, who had averaged over 20 points per game in the two regular season meetings. McNamee was held to one field goal, which came late in the first half, and a total of three points.
After having one defender behind her and a second in front of her throughout the second half, Van Buren coach Matt Rossignol made the second-half adjustment of putting his 5-10 junior center, Felicia Bouchard, on her. The move paid off as Bouchard kept her off the scoreboard until 1:28 remaining in the game on a foul shot.
“Felicia is a beast and if someone in the state blocks more shots than she does, I’d be surprised,” said Rossignol. “She averaged five or six a game and does it a lot of times without fouling, which is a lost art.”
The change was made after Fort Fairfield junior forward Megan Jellison quickly found her shooting range when inserted into the game late in the second quarter and her team down 12-6. Jellison connected on seven consecutive field goal attempts the rest of the half. They came on a variety of shots, including some layups, short jumpers and even a three-pointer, as the Tigers built a seven-point halftime lead.
“She is capable of that,” said her coach, Larry Gardner. “Meg is a streaky shooter and if she gets that split second to get her feet set, she can be really tough.”
Van Buren reevaluated its defensive game plan at intermission and the changes worked out.
“We were doing a terrible job with our defensive rotation on her that first half, but when we took a defender off [McNamee] we got better coverage,” said coach Rossignol.
Parise Rossignol had a solid outing with 25 points and eight rebounds.
Jellison scored 17 points as Fort Fairfield had 21 of its 37 points from reserves.
“When they took away our open looks in the second half, which we thought they would, we had no one else we could go to,” Gardner said. “We had two great shooting nights when we beat them during the season, but didn’t have that tonight.”
Bubar had six points, McNamee 10 rebounds and Kayla Giberson eight rebounds to complement Jellison’s offensive performance.
