Penobscot Valley girls top Dexter in defensive battle

By Larry Mahoney, Bangor Daily News Staff

The Penobscot Valley High School girls basketball team went seven minutes and two seconds without scoring in the second half of its Class C North semifinal against Dexter on Saturday.

But it didn’t matter.

The long and lanky Howlers played suffocating team defense and posted a 28-15 victory at the Cross Insurance Center.

The third-seeded Howlers, 17-3, will now take on top seed Stearns of Millinocket, 15-3 and a 50-35 winner over No. 5 Hodgdon, in Monday’s 6 p.m. regional championship game.

Stearns and PVHS split their regular season games, each winning at home. 

No. 7 Dexter wound up 12-7.

The Howlers forced 21 turnovers with their length, long arms and trapping defense and held Dexter to a 5-for-30 shooting performance.

Freshman guard Ellie Austin led the way for the Howlers with a game-high 12 points, four steals, two rebounds and two assists.

Junior Kaya Loring added nine points, four assists and three steals. Twin sister Holly Loring added four points, three rebounds and a steal.

“It was a great team win. It was a grinder,” said PVHS coach Nate Case. “Certain teams play certain ways and we knew [Dexter coach Jody Grant] would make us play an old school way: man-to-man, hard-nosed defense. They weren’t going to shoot until they got a perfect shot. It was like a game within the game.”

Case didn’t know they went 7:02 without a point but he said it didn’t surprise him.

“They’re always a great defensive team but we also have a great defense so if we have a drought, offensively, we know we can trust our defense,” said Case.

“Our defense is what pushed us to the win,” said Kaya Loring. “We played really well. We had good energy and we worked hard.”

Loring’s conventional 3-point play with 3:23 left snapped PVHS’s 7:02 scoring drought and gave the Howlers a 20-10 lead and all but sewed up the victory.

Austin looped a pass to her after Loring got behind her defender and Loring banked in a 6-foot base line runner with her left hand while getting fouled.

“I got ahead of [my defender] and Ellie found me with the pass,” Loring said.

Austin said they played “one of our best games of the year.”

“We were able to score off of our defense,” Austin said. “Our length definitely helped.”

Elizabeth Kinney’s seven points and two rebounds paced Dexter and Jozlynn Paige and Hannah Dean had four points apiece. Paige also had four steals and two rebounds and Dean had four rebounds.

Grant said there were just “so many tiny things” that hurt his team.

“We would miss the open person, we wouldn’t see them soon enough, we’d make the wrong kind of pass or wouldn’t catch it,” Grant said. “If we got the ball in the right place, we didn’t hit the shots. You shouldn’t have more turnovers than points.”

PVHS used a 13-2 run in the first half to build a 13-6 halftime lead. The Howlers led by as many as 11 before Paige hit back-to-back baskets in the paint late in the third period to make it 17-10 after three periods.

Neither team scored in the fourth quarter until Loring’s conventional 3-point play with 3:23 left.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Class C North semifinal

No. 3 PVHS 28, No. 7 Dexter 15

Dexter: Gudroe, Poliquin, Corson, Kinney 2-3-7, Paige 2-0-4, Dean 1-2-4, Peach

Penobscot Valley: Austin 4-4-12, K. Loring 2-5-9, Carson 0-1-1, H. Loring 1-2-4, Ireland, Neal 1-0-2

3-point goals: none

Dexter 4 6 10 15

PVHS 9 13 17 28

Stearns 50, Hodgdon 35

Peters, Thompson 0-2-2, Folsom, Polchies 4-0-9, Matheson 1-0-2, Dow 2-0-4, Fitzpatrick 1-0-2, Oliver 5-5-16, Lawlor, Porter, Smith

Stearns: Anderson 4-2-11, Emerson, Gardner, Welch, Alley 8-1-19, Sanders, Kenyon 3-3-9, Farber 3-5-11

3-point goals: Polchies, Oliver; Anderson, Alley 2

Hodgdon 10 19 27 35

Stearns 14 26 41 50