AUGUSTA — Messalonskee’s late-season slump is ancient history now.
The eighth-seeded Eagles are going to the Eastern Class A championship game following Wednesday afternoon’s 48-44 semifinal victory over No. 4 Cony.
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Messalonskee (11-9) plays No. 3 Hampden on Friday night at the Augusta Civic Center. The Eagles lost twice to Hampden during the regular season, but that appears irrelevant the way they’re playing this week.
“It’s amazing,” senior point guard Mary Badeen said. “It feels great.”
The Eagles led by as many as 16 points early in the second half but nearly crumbled in the face of intense defensive pressure from the Rams (11-9), who tied the game at 38 on back-to-back hoops from sophomore Josie Lee.
“It’s not the first time we’ve faced that,” Messalonskee junior Megan Pelletier said. “We’ve been facing that all season. We wanted it and we went out there and got it.”
Pelletier, who scored 13 points, made a pair of free throws with 2:30 left to give the Eagles the lead for good. Badeen followed with her only 3-pointer of the game after the Rams left her wide open in the corner, giving Messalonskee a 43-38 lead with 1:05 to play.
“What we were trying to do was run through our offense and if you got something you liked you’d take it,” Messalonskee Coach Brenda Beckwith said. “That’s what you like about people who are shooters, they have that confidence and they stick it. That’s the old cliche, ‘No, no, no — yes.’ “
Cony didn’t go away. Julie Arbour converted a three-point play to make it 45-41. Following a free throw by Badeen, Emily Sanford hit a 3-pointer with a defender in her face.
But the Rams, who had forced a dozen Messalonskee turnovers in the second half, committed two of their own in the final 12 seconds.
“We picked up our defense and that’s what we’ve always done,” Cony Coach Karen Magnusson said. “You pick up your defense and your offense comes.”
Each team did a good job shutting down the other’s offensive weapons. Until her game-ending free throws, Pelletier was held to nine points.
“They were definitely (doubling up) on me more and tripling me and trying not to let me get the ball,” Pelletier said. “And not let me turn and do my normal turn, shoot, drive.”
Badeen was also limited in her shots and finished with eight points, but the Eagles got big games from guards Alyssa Eugley and Abby Stacey. Eugley hit a pair of 3s in the first quarter to help the Eagles to a 12-10 lead, and Stacey scored 14 points, including three 3-pointers at crucial junctures.
“We knew (Pelletier and Badeen) were going to get doubled or even tripled,” Stacey said. “I knew I had to step up, and if there was an open shot I had to take it and help them out.”
The Eagles bottled up Cony point guard Mia Diplock by stopping her penetration into the paint, but the Rams got big games from Sanford (12 points) and Arbour (10). Sanford hit consecutive 3s late in the third quarter as the Rams cut the lead to 35-26.
Crystal Clark started a 10-0 run with a layup midway through the fourth quarter that culminated with Lee’s tying basket.
“You don’t want to finish on a loss but you look at it and say, ‘Look what we did,’ ” Magnusson said. “We finally got Cony back to the Civic Center.”
Gary Hawkins — 621-5638
ghawkins@centralmaine.com
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