WELLS — The saying is that to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best, and there’s no doubt that Lake Region has been the benchmark of Class B girls basketball over the past two years, compiling a 38-6 record and winning a pair of Western Maine regional crowns.

Wednesday night, however, may have seen the start of a power shift southward, as Wells persevered past a terrible start and overcame a nine-point halftime deficit to upset the Lakers 44-36 in an early-season showdown of two previously-undefeated Western Maine Conference teams.

It was a major win for a veteran Warriors (4-0) squad that beforehand seemed just on the cusp of joining the elite squads at the top of Western Class B.

“That’s a character win right there,” Wells coach Don Abbott said. “That’s the gold standard of Class B basketball over there and they have been the past few years. We slowed down, we righted the ship and we were able to just start to chip away.”

After falling behind by 11 early and trailing 27-18 at the half, Wells slowly clawed its way back in the third quarter, crucially getting the fourth foul on Lake Region’s standout 6-foot-2-inch center Tiana-Jo Carter early in the quarter and taking advantage of the extra space in the paint to trail by just one after three.

The veteran Warriors then turned on the defense in the fourth, when they outscored the Lakers 15-4 as Carter fouled out with 5:34 left and her team up 34-33.

“That’s a no-brainer that it changed the complexion of the game, but I’d like to think we had something to do with that,” Abbott said of Carter’s foul trouble.

“She’s the single most dominating force in our league, and so our game plan was to try to selectively get at her and make sure we tried to block out. It was a very physical game and we made some nice plays and were able to get at her.”

A Wells win, and even a close game, looked unlikely early as the Warriors turned the ball over on their first eight possessions, allowing the Lakers (3-1) to build a 16-5 lead after one.

“We were kind of throwing it around because we were really nervous,” said Wells forward Alison Furness, who scored a game-high 16 points. “They’re an intimidating team and they came out pretty strong.”

The Warriors settled down and slowly started to chip into that lead in the second, but the big break came when Carter ”“ who scored all 12 of her points in the first 11 minutes of the game as she dominated the paint on both ends ”“ picked up her third foul trying to grab an offensive rebound with 4:55 left before halftime.

With Carter resigned to the bench the Lakers still staked themselves to a sizable lead at the half, but Furness said the fact the deficit wasn’t greater, along with Carter’s foul trouble, gave the Warriors hope at the break.

“We don’t like to give up,” Furness said. “We’re built around some perseverance, and there was a lot of encouragement that Tiana had three fouls and we were only down by nine.”

The lead was closed to five early in the third, and Carter’s fourth foul was all Wells needed to continue its run as hoops by Furness and Nicole Moody, and the Warriors’ only 3-pointer of the game from Ally O’Brien, closed the gap to 32-29.

Furness then finished the flourish with two seconds left in the quarter when Moody found her on a nice backdoor cut for an easy layup, a play the Warriors may not have even attempted had Carter’s long arms been in the game, and it was a one-point game with eight minutes to play.

“It opened up the lane for us to attack,” Moody said of Carter being out of the game. “We had a game plan for when she was in, but our style is penetrating and trying to go to the hoop, and with her out it really opened it up for us.”

The teams then traded baskets to open the fourth, but it was all Wells after Carter fouled out trying to make some room for herself down low on the offensive end.

Without her, the Lakers offense broke down, and much as the game had opened with a 13-2 run, it ended with a 13-2 run, this time by Wells as the Warriors stayed composed and hit six of their 10 free throws in the final two minutes to seal it.

“Everyone talks about how we’re a veteran group, and I thought we played like poised veterans late in the game,” Abbott said. “We really started valuing the basketball and we really understood that each possession was important.”

The importance of the victory, even if it comes in the early part of the season, wasn’t lost on the Warriors either.

“This means a lot because it sets a standard for us and makes a point that we’re a good team,” Moody said. “For years Wells has been in the background, and now we’re at the front.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected]