This was new territory for the Gray-New Gloucester girls’ basketball team, leading late in a regional semifinal.

The second-seeded Patriots made mistakes – blowing a late five-point lead – but regrouped in overtime to beat third-ranked Lake Region 53-47 in a Class B South semifinal Thursday at Cross Insurance Arena.

Grace Kariotis of Gray-New Gloucester has the ball batted loose on a drive to the basket Thursday in a Class B South girls’ basketball semifinal versus Lake Region at Cross Insurance Arena. (Photo by John Ewing/Staff Photographer)

The Patriots (16-4) move on to the South final at 2 p.m. Saturday against fourth-seeded Lincoln Academy (19-2). Lincoln beat the Patriots in their only regular-season meeting, 34-33 on Dec. 13.

This will be Gray-New Gloucester’s first regional final since 2003.

Lake Region (15-5), the state champion two years ago, lost once to the Patriots in the regular season.

Alicia Dumont scored 18 points and Alanna Camerl added 14, both as reserves for Gray-New Gloucester. Kristen Huntress and Chandler True paced Lake Region with 14 points apiece.

The Patriots led most of the second half and were ahead 42-37 with 2:21 remaining in regulation. But two turnovers gave Lake Region a chance, and a True 3-pointer and a Lauren Jakobs putback tied the game.

“That was our lack of being in this situation before,” Patriots Coach Mike Andreasen said. “Lake Region is in it every year.

“We made the semifinal last year and it wasn’t pretty (a 57-34 loss to Greely, the eventual state champion). This was our first time having to produce and we had some jitters.”

With the score 42-42, Lake Region played for the last shot in regulation but couldn’t get a good look.

Camerl, a 6-foot-2 center, put the Patriots back in front with a layup in overtime.

After a Lake Region miss, Isabelle Detroy drove the lane and sent the ball back out to an open Dumont, who hit her third 3-pointer for a 47-42 lead.

“The biggest shot of the game,” Lakers Coach Paul True said. “They scored first and when you can’t get over that hump and get a lead, you have to play a little bit differently.”

Lake Region got within three, but Detroy made two free throws to go ahead 49-44 with 2:13 left, and the Patriots kept it a two-possession lead the rest of the game.

Detroy, a 5-7 forward, had a key rebound and a steal in overtime.

“She does a little bit of everything for us,” Andreasen said. “As Izzy goes, we go.”

The Patriots also like to get the ball to 5-9 post player Skye Conley, but Lake Region’s defense smothered her, holding her to three points.

Dumont, a 5-6 guard, filled the scoring gap, with eight points in the first quarter.

“They doubled down on Skye and we had shots that were open,” said Dumont, a one-time starter who is coming back from a knee injury.

And while Dumont was hitting from the outside, Camerl was getting open looks inside, hitting 7 of 11 shots.

“Good teams have more than one or two (scoring) options,” True said.

The Lakers had good options in the first half, shooting 44 percent – including 4 of 9 on 3-pointers – while taking a 26-24 lead.

“Lake Region was torching our zone,” Andreasen said. “Our half-court defense in the second half was much better. We went to a straight man-to-man and luckily our size won.”

The Patriots covered the outside shooters, and kept Camerl and Conley underneath. The Lakers found few open shots and scored only five points in the third quarter.

“We continued to battle,” said True, who started two sophomores, two juniors and one senior.

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