Junior center Abbie Quinn scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the fourth-seeded Bangor High School girls basketball team to a 42-31 Class AA North quarterfinal win over No. 5 Windham in the Red Barry Gym in Bangor Wednesday night.
Quinn had 17 points and 14 rebounds in a 54-26 regular season win over Windham in Bangor on Dec. 30 but the Rams had to work a lot harder to secure this victory as they trailed by as many as six points in the first quarter.
Windham did beat Bangor in Windham 46-40 on Jan. 14.
Junior point guard Emmie Streams contributed 10 points, five rebounds, four steals and four assists as Bangor improved to 13-6. It was Bangor’s fourth straight win.
Bangor will play the winner of the Oxford Hills-Deering of Portland quarterfinal in the semifinals at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Wednesday.
Laela Martinez added nine points and four rebounds for the Ram and Mimi Quinn added six points and four rebounds.
University of Maine-bound guard Sarah Talon poured in a game-high 18 points for the 11-8 Eagles and also had nine rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots despite being in foul trouble.
She picked up her third foul with 5:56 left in the third period and her fourth with 5:46 remaining in the fourth
Talon guarded the taller Quinn in the Eagles’ man-to-man defense but after she got into foul trouble, Windham had to go to a zone to keep her from picking up any more.
“When she got into foul trouble, we knew we had to keep going at her because she was going to back off so our layups were going to be a lot easier,” Streams said.
Carley Morey had five points and three rebounds for Windham and Abbey Thornton had four points and three rebounds.
Bangor limited Windham to a 28.9 percent shooting performance from the floor (13-for-45). Talon was 8-for-18 (44.4 percent) while the rest of the team was 5-for-27 (18.5 percent).
Bangor shot 41.7 percent from the floor (15-for-36).
Bangor used a 9-0 run to close out the first half and take an 18-14 lead into the intermission.
Abbie Quinn had five of those nine points.
Bangor outscored Windham 9-4 in the third period to build a 27-18 cushion and a Martinez 3-pointer and a Quinn basket off her own offensive rebound expanded it to 32-18 in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.
Windham couldn’t get any closer than nine the rest of the way.
“It was a battle,” said Bangor coach Jay Kemble. “We had to compete for 32 minutes. Our defensive intensity really started to pick up with three minutes to go in the first quarter and carried through the second and third periods.”
The Rams held Windham to a total of six points in the second and third periods.
Windham shot 3-for-21 in the middle periods.
Bangor contested virtually every shot and did an excellent job on the defensive boards.
The taller Rams outrebounded Windham 31-25.
“We worked well as a team offensively and defensively,” Quinn said.
It is the 13th time this season Bangor has held its opponents under 40 points.
Kemble said the Rams received a big lift off the bench from junior Taylor Coombs, who guarded Talon and also hauled down four rebounds and blocked a shot in limited minutes.
“Taylor has the same length as Talon and did a tremendous job,” Kemble said. “That was a huge difference. We were able to match Taylor’s size and athleticism with Sarah’s size and athleticism. It really changed the complexion of what it was we were trying to do defensively.”
Kemble said he knew it was going to be a tough game.
“They’re a good team. They’re well-coached and they have an elite player with a good supporting cast,” Kemble said. “We were a little flat to begin the game but we picked up a little bit of momentum and we matched their intensity the last few minutes of the first quarter, second quarter and third quarter.”