enlarge Joe Phelan/Blethen Maine News Service

Jessica Bridges, left, and Stephanie Haiss celebrate Friday afternoon after Messalonskee's 41-37 win over Skowhegan in the Eastern Class A girls' basketball championship game at the Augusta Civic Center.

AUGUSTA — Messalonskee High School junior guard Kaitlyn Deering smiled, laughed, then let out a deep breath.

“Oh my gosh,” she said. “It’s so cool. It doesn’t feel like it happened.”

Oh, it did happen: an Eastern Class A girls' basketball championship for the Eagles.

No. 3 Messalonskee parlayed good foul shooting and sound defense into a 41-37 victory over top-seeded Skowhegan to win the regional title Friday before a large crowd at the Augusta Civic Center.

The Eagles (19-2) will make their first appearance in a state championship game since 1987, when they beat Mt. View to win the Class B title.

Messalonskee will play either Deering or Biddeford in the state championship game. Those teams meet tonight in the Western Class A final at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

Deering scored 11 points and Holly Oliver added nine, including four free throws in the final 45 seconds.

“We didn’t want to go home and be doing nothing and watching everyone else play,” Oliver said. “We knew we had to come out and do as much as we can.”

The Eagles never led by more than five and trailed 30-29 less than a minute into the fourth quarter after Skowhegan forward Kaley Brown (10 points) swished a short baseline jump shot. But Messalonskee then used a quick 6-0 run to take the lead for good.

“It’s frustrating,” Brown said. “Since it was my last game, I don’t really know what to say.”

Poor foul shooting hurt the Indians (17-3) — they made just five of their 13 attempts — but they had chances in the final minute to pull even or go ahead.

With the Eagles clinging to a 38-35 lead, Messalonskee's Ari Perry was fouled with 29 seconds left. Perry missed the front end of a one-on-one, and Brown scored inside to slice the lead to 38-37.

Oliver, though, calmly sank two free throws to give Messalonskee a 40-37 lead.

“That was big,” said Oliver, who also had five rebounds. “That gave us hope that we (could) pull this off.”

Skowhegan guard Whitney Jones missed a 3-pointer with less than 10 seconds left, and Perry chased down the rebound before being fouled with 1.4 seconds remaining. Perry made one of two free throws – the Eagles were 7 of 10 from the line – to clinch the title.

“I really felt it would come down to who would make a defensive stop,” Messalonskee Coach Brenda Beckwith said. “I thought we made two great defensive stops down the stretch and we hit our free throws when we had to.”

Added Skowhegan Coach Heath Cowan: “(You've) got to make your free throws. It’s been kind of an Achilles' heel for us all season and tonight it caught up to us.

"I thought we got after it defensively, and if you had said we’d give up just 41 (points), I’d like my chances.”

Skowhegan tried to pound the ball inside to Brown and Mackenzie Smith. The Indians had some success, particularly early, but the Eagles received a nice defensive game from senior Stephanie Haiss, who scored just two points but had 11 rebounds and a blocked shot.

“Brown and Smith didn’t have many easy, easy looks,” Beckwith said. “Haiss was swatting away balls, rebounding and everything. She had a great inside game.”

Skowhegan used what Beckwith called a sagging man-to-man defense to contain the fast and quick-shooting Eagles. The Indians also took away the inside passing lanes, denying the Eagles easy cuts to the basket.

“We fight all season long to get to the Eastern Maine (final),” Cowan said. “You knew it would go like this. There are no guarantees in the final. It usually comes down to who gets a key rebound, who makes more free throws, and they did that today.”

bstewart@centralmaine.com