Fourth seed Nokomis defeated third seed Medomak Valley girls’ basketball team 50-41 to win the East Class B championships Feb. 26 at the Bangor Auditorium. The Warriors led by 15 late in the third quarter, before the Lady Panthers rallied to pull within two in the final period.
In the end, Nokomis was rock solid at the foul line, sinking 12 of 14 in the final two and a half minutes of play to extend their lead and pull out the win.
“Early on we just dug a hole and couldn’t stop their penetration,” coach Randy Hooper said. “We got so far behind. We made a nice run, but couldn’t quite get over the top.”
A key to Medomak’s success all season was their outside shooting. The Lady Panthers were unable to establish their perimeter game all night against the Warriors, which was a point of frustration for the veteran team. “We didn’t shoot the ball well. That is a credit to their team. Their defensive pressure makes you miss,” Hooper said.
Medomak’s trademark defense got them back into the game and gave the Panthers a chance to win. Hooper said he was proud of his team’s comeback effort. “Even after the game with how the kids handled themselves, I got a lot of compliments.”
“This group of girls has only lost four games all season (regular season 16-2, loss to Leavitt KVAC championships, and loss to Nokomis in East B finals), and two of them were to Leavitt and two to Nokomis, and they are playing for a State championship,” Hooper said. “In the past two years, basically this same team has lost only nine games, and seven of those losses were to Nokomis and Leavitt.”
The 2010-’11 team goes into the school record books as the second winningest team in the Lady Panther’s history. Medomak went 18-0 in 1977-’78 and also lost in the Regional finals.
Nokomis took a 10-6 lead at the quarter. Freshman Kelsie Richards opened the game with a three for the Warriors. Lindsay Ranquist crashed the glass for two to put the Panthers on the scoreboard a minute into the contest. Marissa Shaw scored for the Warriors. Mallory Conary scored on a feed from Ericka Christensen and Christensen crashed the glass for two to give Medomak their only lead of the ball game, 6-5. Nokomis’ Kylie Richards ended the quarter with back-to-back hoops, including a three to give the Warriors a four-point edge at the break.
Nokomis outscored Medomak 12-10 in the second period to extend their lead to 22-16 at the half. The Warriors opened the third frame with a 12-3 run to boost their lead to 15 with 2:27 to play. Alanna Vose drove inside with 2:17 to go and made the hoop and a foul shot for a three-point play to cut the lead to 12. Danielle Watson scored for the Warriors, before Vose settled two at the foul line to cut the lead to 12, 36-24 at the end of three.
Medomak scored 12 straight points over two quarters to cut the lead to two with 5:20 to play. Medomak scored the first 10 points of the fourth period. Lindsay Ranquist went inside on a pass from Christensen; Mallory Conary scored on a Vose feed; Vanessa Davis scored off her own steal; Ranquist scored on a pass from Davis off a Conary steal, and Vose scored to cut the lead to two. Watson and Conary exchanged hoops, before the Warriors took full advantage of late steals from Reynolds and Kelsie Richards and their opportunities at the foul line to advance to the State championships to take on West B champion and KVAC nemesis Leavitt.
Scoring for Medomak were Christensen 15 (9R,4S,2B,2A), Ranquist 10 (8R), Vose 9 (3S,3A), Conary 5, and Davis 2 (2S). Scoring for Nokomis were Juliane Smith 15 (11 foul shots, 3S), Kylie Richards 12, Kelsie Richards 9, Watson 8 (7R), Emilee Reynolds 6, and Shaw 2.