enlarge
Joe Phelan/Blethen Maine News Service
enlarge
Joe Phelan/Blethen Maine News ServiceAUGUSTA — If it was surprising that the Oxford Hills girls knocked off top-ranked Lawrence earlier this week, what happened next was absolutely stunning.
With the Eastern Class A title on the line Friday, the fifth-seeded Vikings made up an early 12-point deficit and went on to shock Cony, the four-time defending regional champion, 52-49 at the Augusta Civic Center.
The Vikings needed to be near perfect to come back, and they were. Oxford Hills shot 68 percent in the second half, and in the final 33 seconds got a basket by Megan Joyce and two foul shots by Kari Pelletier, then watched a potential tying shot by Cony go off the rim.
Oxford Hills (15-6) for the state title against Deering or Noble at 3 p.m. next Saturday at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
Oxford Hills trailed by 12 in the first half after third-seeded Cony (18-3) ran off 16 straight points. With the help of three 3-pointers by Melanie Cloutier, the Vikings came back and finally regained the lead when Lindsay Fox curled around a screen for a layup to make it 46-45 with 1:57 left in the game.
“All year we’ve battled back in games,” Oxford Hills Coach Nate Pelletier said. “We’ve battled from injury. We’ve battled from being down points. These girls just work hard.”
The lead changed hands three straight times. Rachael Mack of Cony made two foul shots, followed by Lauren Brett’s leaning left-handed scoop that swished through the net for Oxford Hills. Mack (12 points, seven rebounds) answered by draining a jumper from the right corner for a 49-48 Cony lead with 53 seconds left.
MacKenzie Dufour of the Rams stole the ball on the next possession, but Fox stole it back. From the 3-point line, Cloutier dropped the ball down to Joyce. After struggling to catch the ball, Joyce gathered it in and made a layup with 33 seconds left.
“I don’t know how she got it in to me, and I don’t know how I scored, but it all worked out for the best,” said Joyce, who led the Vikings with 15 points. “I lost it and then when I put it back up, it kind of rattled the rim. I didn’t know what was going on. I was just hoping that it would work out and it did.
The Vikings forced a turnover, and after each team missed a free throw, Kari Pelletier was fouled with 5.9 seconds left. She made both ends of the 1-and-1, and Cony’s game-tying 3-pointer from the left wing was off the rim at the buzzer.
“I knew I was going to make (the free throws),” Pelletier said. “We had a shootaround before practice, so I was feeling pretty good then. I just took a deep breath and did my normal routine, and it went in.”
Cony’s 16-0 first-half run was sparked by the outside shooting of Shelby Pelkey (22 points) and Kayla Belanger (12), and it gave the Rams a 27-19 lead at halftime.
“The nerves got to us a little bit at the beginning,” Coach Pelletier said. “We did settle down, but part of that, though, was Cony. They’re a great defensive team.”
With Pelkey running the offense brilliantly, the Rams continued to shoot well in the second half – they shot 51 percent for the game – but they also committed 12 turnovers against the Vikings’ press while putting up only 13 field-goal attempts.
“They didn’t miss many shots they took, so we said, ‘We’ve got to limit their shots altogether,’ ” Coach Pelletier said. “Part of it was containing, not letting them dribble-penetrate and kick. We were putting three people on Mack if we could, which ended up leaving some people open, but you’ve got to take the lesser of the evils in one of those games.”
“I think the kids have to realize what they really, truly have accomplished as a team,” Cony Coach Paul Vachon said of a team that had just two seniors...
Reader comments
Click here to view or add comments on this story
Were you interviewed for this story? If so, please fill out our accuracy form