Cats advance

    BANGOR , Maine — The second-seeded Presque Isle High School girls basketball team connected on five of its nine 3-pointers in the second quarter to build a 28-14 halftime lead en route to a 50-33 victory over 10th-seed Winslow in an Eastern Maine Class B basketball quarterfinal at the Cross Insurance Center Friday night.
The Wildcats improved to 17-2 and will take on No. 11 Hermon, an upset winner over Medomak Valley of Waldoboro, in today’s 2:05 p.m. semifinal. Presque Isle beat Hermon 72-34 and 70-41 in their regular season games.
Winslow concluded an 11-9 campaign.
Senior forward Krystal Kingsbury paced the Wildcats with 15 points, nine rebounds, two steals and two assists. Senior guard Hannah Graham had 13 points, four assists and three rebounds and sophomore guard Emily Lagerstrom contributed 10 points, all in the first half, including three 3-pointers.
Five-foot-11 junior center Regan Nelson had a game-high 15 rebounds, including 11 in the first half, to go with six points.
Sophomore forward Heather Kervin led the Black Raiders with 13 points and five rebounds. Alyssa Wood, Devin Fitzgibbons and Ciara LeClair had six points apiece. LeClair grabbed four rebounds and had two assists.
Nelson and the 5-8 Kingsbury capitalized on their height advantage to control the boards and the Wildcats moved the ball quickly and smartly around Winslow’s 1-3-1 zone to get open 3-pointers.
Winslow didn’t have a player over 5-7.
Presque Isle led 10-8 after the first quarter before Lagerstrom fed Graham at the top of the key for a 3-pointer to open the second quarter. Kingsbury then passed to Graham for another three to make it 16-8.
Madison Roy converted an offensive rebound to cut the lead to 16-10 but Lagerstrom converted a rare four-point play, draining a 3-pointer off a Graham pass and adding a free throw as she was also fouled.
Taylor Williams followed with a 3-pointer off a Nelson pass and passed to Lagerstrom for another three to make it 26-10.
Presque Isle went 7-for-14 from beyond the 3-point arc in the first half.
“That’s pretty good,” Graham said. “It wasn’t our best game but we’re moving on and that’s all the matters.”
LeClair’s layup off a Fitzgibbons pass capped a 5-1 spurt in the third quarter to pull Winslow within 29-19 but Graham fed Williams for a 3-pointer to close out the quarter and Winslow couldn’t get any closer than 11 the rest of the way.
“We definitely moved the ball around the perimeter well and got some open looks for our 3-point shooters,” Kingsbury said. “Winslow is known for its man-to-man but when they threw a zone at us, there were lots of openings on the perimeter.”
Kingsbury also said Nelson was a “beast underneath rebounding. We really need that to get far in this tournament.”
“I knew I had to be strong on the post,” Nelson said.