The jitters are gone — a prelim round game took care of those, coach Mike Gray said.
Now, the Gardiner Area High School girls basketball team can focus on one thing when it heads to Bangor for the Eastern B tournament Saturday.
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“It’s awesome,” Gardiner coach Mike Gray said. “It’s a huge step for the program. The prelim helped us because we got the jitters out. Now we can just go up there and play.”
No. 7 Gardiner (14-5) will play Presque Isle (17-1) at the Bangor Auditorium at 3:30 p.m. The Tigers, who won a prelim game Tuesday against Old Town, are making their first trip to the tournament in eight years.
Also Saturday, No. 4 Nokomis (16-2) will play No. 5 Mount Desert Island (14-4) in a quarterfinal game at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
No. 2 John Bapst (15-3) — the team responsible for pinning Presque Isle with its lone defeat — will play No.10 Hermon (11-8). The other regional quarterfinal game pits No. 3 Medomak Valley (16-2) against No. 6 Caribou (9-9).
Nokomis is the defending Eastern B champ and returns three starters from that team.
“We’re not the mystery team anymore,” Nokomis coach Kori Dionne said. “Everybody knows what we can do. We can play with anyone in the tournament. With this group, the sky is the limit. Last year we flew under the radar.
“We know we have a big target on our back. People aren’t curious as to what we can do anymore. They know we will come out strong.”
Gardiner has just one senior on its roster — captain Carly Pelletier — and brings an inexperienced team to Bangor.
The Tigers, who have won four of their last five games, didn’t play Presque Isle in the regular season.
Junior guard Chelsea Nickerson and sophomore guard Chandler Guerrette lead the Wildcats. Both average more than 10 points a game.
“We know they are very good,” Gray said. “But I am more worried about how we’re going to do. We feel we can play with anybody and we’re going to go up there and show them what we can do. It’s not like we’re going up there as the favorite. There’s no pressure and it’s not like they aren’t beatable.”
The Warriors come into the tournament still adjusting to life without junior guard Megan Perry, whose season ended Feb. 4 after she injured her knee in a game against Winslow.
“We have to go deeper into our bench guard-wise,” Dionne said, “and that is where we are our youngest. It’s an adjustment. (Perry) started for us all season.”
The Warriors, who didn’t face MDI in the regular season, will once again turn to forward Marissa Shaw, guard Julie Smith and center Danielle Watson to anchor the team.
The three started on last year’s regional championship team.
“We need to get them rolling,” Dionne said.
MDI and 6-foot senior forward Megan Phelps present a matchup problem for the Warriors, Dionne added.
“She is their best shooter and best ball handler,” Dionne said. “She can get it done. She is so versatile. We can’t stop her all together but we’ll have to limit her. She presents a problem.”
Bill Stewart – 623-3811, ext. 515
bstewart@centralmaine.com
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