Caribou poses for photos after beating Erskine, 51-46, to win the Class B North title on Friday in Bangor. hoto by Emily Bontatibus

BANGOR — Thanks to a near-flawless first quarter, the Caribou girls basketball team is off to the Class B title game.

The No. 1 Vikings outscored No. 2 Erskine Academy 22-5 in the first quarter and ultimately won the Class B North title with a 61-46 victory on Friday night at Cross Insurance Center.

“This is awesome,” Caribou coach Kayla Brown said. “There’s just no better feeling.”

Caribou (20-1) will meet South champion Biddeford in the state final at 1:05 p.m. on March 1 at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. It’s the first regional title in Class B for the Vikings, who will make their first appearance in a state final since 1984, when they fell 85-64 to Portland in the Class A final.

Forward Liv Adams and guard Madelynn Deprey each scored 18 points for Caribou, while Quinn Corrigan added 10 points.

“I don’t know how to explain it, it just feels great,” said Adams, a junior. “I’ve just never felt this way before. I’m very grateful for what we have.”

Erskine, led by guard Kelsie Dunn’s 11 points, finished 16-5.

Caribou controlled the opening quarter from tip-off, going on a 14-0 run. Deprey scored eight of her 18 points in the first quarter, while Adams added six points. The Vikings also controlled the boards throughout the quarter. Adams and Corrigan each finished with six rebounds, while Deprey had five.

“Since this tournament started, we haven’t had great starts. We haven’t come out hot,” Adams said. “We were in a little mental lapse, I think. But we overcame that. We’ve been doing good (in the playoffs) on rebounding and boxing out, I feel like. We’ve been working on that a lot, because we can be pretty dominant on the boards and it helps us out a lot.”

“We’ve lost the rebounding game almost every game this year,” added Deprey. “We had one day of practice before this game today, and that was something that was pounded into our heads.”

Caribou outscored Erskine 10-8 in the second quarter to go into halftime with a comfortable 32-13 lead.

“The girls were ready to play,” Brown said. “They came out with a lot of intensity. We also crashed the boards hard. And we hadn’t shot the ball real well in this tournament, so I was like, ‘Hey, if we’re not going to make buckets, let’s get second-chance opportunities.’ That was the goal there and it was executed well.”

The Eagles, who reached the regional final with no seniors and a squad full of sophomores, outscored Caribou 33-29 in the second half. Erskine nailed four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. But Caribou’s output from the first quarter was too much to overcome.

“Coming out (to start the game), we were scared tonight,” said Erskine coach Danielle Lefferts. “We played with nerves, other than letting our talent take over in the first quarter. Once we settled in, we held our own and even won the third and fourth quarter. At halftime, our goal was to win the third and fourth quarter, and we did.

“We’ll keep pressing on and get even stronger next season. Perseverance comes to mind with this team. They just don’t quit. They always see hope, they see a chance; we just couldn’t pull it off tonight.”

Reaching a regional final has been a long-sought goal for the Caribou seniors. The Vikings were knocked out in the semifinal round each of the previous two years by Ellsworth. This time, Caribou picked up a 47-37 win over Ellsworth in the semifinals.

“(Ellsworth) was a huge mental block for us,” Deprey said. “They knocked us out of the tournament the last two years in a row, and it has not been close. That was a huge mental block. Getting past them was a breath of relief.”

Lily Bell scored nine points for Caribou. Olivia Childs and Isabella Winchenbach each had eight points for Erskine.