enlarge Blethen Maine News Service

For the second year in a row, Waterville celebrated an Eastern Class B championship Saturday at the Bangor Auditorium, beating Mattanawcook 60-40 to set up a rematch with Lake Region in the state final.

BANGOR — For only the third time all season, the Waterville girls found themselves in a close basketball game Saturday.

They needed someone to make a difference, and it didn’t look like it would be sophomore guard Jen Nale, who suffered through a scoreless first half that ended with top-ranked Waterville trailing No. 3 Mattanawcook Academy by three points in the Eastern Class B final.

That’s when Nale got a pep talk from her senior teammate, Sarah Given.

“Sarah Given, the biggest sweetheart on our team, she saw that I was really frustrated,” Nale said. “She said, 'Jen, you just need to come out. You just need to have a lot of fun.’ That’s what I did. I listened up and I got shots in the flow of the offense.”

Two of Nale’s shots were especially big – back-to-back 3- pointers to end the third quarter, with Waterville stars Morgan Frame and Steph Whitten on the bench. Those shots gave Waterville a seven-point lead, and the Purple Panthers went on to a 60-40 victory at the Bangor Auditorium.

Frame finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks as Waterville (21-0) won its 43rd straight game.

The Purple Panthers will go for their second consecutive state title at 7:05 p.m. Friday in Bangor against Lake Region.

Mattanawcook (19-3) led 29-26 at halftime, sparked by Katelyn DeRaps, Brianna Hanscom and Michelle Paul. DeRaps and Hanscom each had 11 points, and Paul scored eight.

“I let (my players) know that Waterville does not give up 29 points in a half, that they had better find their pride and better find what got them here real quick,” Waterville Coach Ted Rioux said.

But Mattanawcook’s lead was precarious. The Lynx made 6 of 7 from 3-point range in the first half, while Frame and Whitten sat for much of the half after picking up two fouls apiece.

“You’re not going to win the game in the first half,” Rioux said. “We know that we’re going to need those players down the stretch, and I think what that shows is a lot of confidence in our bench. They’re at least going to hold the fort down until those players come in and our playmakers can make plays.”

Frame picked up her third foul and Whitten, the point guard, was whistled for her fourth in the third quarter. The Lynx led 35-34 when Brooke Hanscom made a free throw with 2:01 left in the third.

Reserve forward Kayla Smith gave Waterville the lead with a follow-up basket, and Nale then got open and delivered 3- pointers on consecutive possessions.

That put the Panthers on top 42-35 after three quarters, more than enough for Waterville’s starters to protect.

“They’ve got other players coming off the bench,” Mattanawcook Coach Brian McDormand said. “They’re not just five deep. “We missed a couple (layups) in the second half and that came back to haunt us.”

Waterville ended the game on a 26-5 run as Mattanawcook went cold in the second half. The Lynx shot 16 percent after the break, including 1 of 8 from 3-point range as they began forcing shots when the deficit got bigger.

“We knew coming into the game that they had a lot of shooters and they didn’t have much height,” Nale said. “We weren’t getting out far enough defensively.

“They just have such tremendous shooters. If you're not right up in their face, they're going to hit those 3s. (In the second half) we just started to get that extra step out, get a hand in their face instead of having our hands down low.”