BANGOR – First team to find its offense wins.
That was the scenario Saturday morning. Both Oxford Hills and Skowhegan relied on its defense early, hoping to find a spark on the other end. The Indians finally discovered their scoring in the second half and pulled away for a 46-26 Eastern A quarterfinal victory at the Bangor Auditorium.
Seventh-seeded Oxford Hills stayed within reach through three quarters but couldn’t catch second-ranked Skowhegan. The Indians added to an eight-point lead with a 14-1 surge to open the fourth.
“Offensively, you can struggle and still win basketball games as long as you’re playing on the defensive end,” said Skowhegan coach Heath Cowan, whose team beat the Vikings 64-30 in the regular season.
Though the Vikings played solid enough defense to disrupt the Indians, the offense was sparse. The Vikings started the game with nearly 20 turnovers in the first half and finished with more than 30. Oxford Hills attempted 14 shots in the first half and hit just 3-of-22 in the second half.
“We were shooting fairly well, but we weren’t getting the shots,” said Oxford Hills coach Craig Jipson. “You have to get shots every trip. We were shooting OK when we were getting shots. Once we got down by 10, it was like frustration set in.”
The Vikings fell behind early, thanks to 10 turnovers in the first quarter. Jessica Abbott was the spark for Skowhegan, scoring 10 of her game-high 12 points in the second quarter.
“The best part about the basketball game were the kids coming off the bench,” said Cowan. “Jessie Abbott did an outstanding job coming in. She was the one that carried us in the first half and enabled us to get into the pressure stuff that we try to do. In the second half, Zara Saydjari was able to create all kind of things for us with the penetration.”
Megan Franklin added nine points for the Indians (17-2), while Kari Pelletier led the Vikings (14-6) with eight points.
It was Kari Pelletier’s jumper late in the second quarter that got the Vikings within 18-15 with 2:47 left, but Abbott finished the half with a layup and a fast break basket in the final seconds.
In the third quarter, 3-pointers by Annie Foster and Kari Pelletier had the Vikings within four points twice, but fouls late in the quarter led to Indians free throws by Nicole Paradis and Megan Franklin.
Oxford Hills started the second half with 10 fouls to Skowhegan’s two.
“A real key point was being down by five and we took a shot with 10 seconds left and they came down and got a hoop,” said Jipson. “We’re down by six at the end of the third quarter and put up a 3 and get called for a foul on an offensive rebound. They make two free throws. To win the game when you’re the lower seed, you need breaks to go your way. When there was a big break, it didn’t seem to go our way.”
With a 31-23 lead to start the third, Saydjari scored four straight points to start a run that broke the game open. Oxford Hills didn’t get a shot for the first three minutes and never hit a shot from the floor in the final quarter.
“Defensively, we executed our game plan very well,” said Jipson. “To hold them down, they scored in the 90s a couple times this year. They’re a great shooting team. To hold them into the 40s was outstanding. If you hold a team like that in the 40s, you hope that you’ll be in the game.”
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