The Penobscot Valley girls program has been one of the dominant forces in Class C North during recent seasons, and this February is no exception.
The Howland-based team scored its second straight lopsided victory of Tourney 2024, a 55-12 semifinal win over Fort Kent Thursday evening at the Cross Insurance Center.
Defense and rebounding were the keys to victory for coach Nathaniel Case’s club, as the rangy Howlers forced 27 Fort Kent turnovers and outrebounded the Warriors 38-20.
Through two tourney wins to date, PVHS defense has yielded just 21 points per contest.
“Everyone knows what we’re going to do, and our practices are hard no matter what,” Case said. “Even with the two days [between games] some people said take it easy on them, but our last two practices were probably some of the hardest we’ve had to get ready for this game.”
Junior forward Ellie Austin paced PVHS with 14 points, 11 rebounds and six steals, Sophomore forward Lila Cummings added 11 points and 10 boards and sophomore guard Rylee Moulton also contributed 11 points.
Mia Voisine scored four points and Lily Oliver and Ellie Roy added three points each for Fort Kent.
Third-ranked Penobscot Valley, 18-2, overcame 21 turnovers of its own to post its ninth consecutive victory and advance to Saturday’s 6 p.m. regional final against the winner of Thursday’s late game between top-seeded Dexter and No, 4 Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln.
The Howlers, who fell to Dexter 34-27 in last year’s North final, will be seeking their first regional crown since 2019.
“We know we need to work really hard and in practices we’re going to continue to work hard because coach pushes us for a reason,” Austin said. “Obviously it pays off, and we’re going to go for it.”
Second-seeded Fort Kent ends its season with a 15-5 record.
Penobscot Valley raced out to a 30-6 halftime cushion, using a suffocating zone press and an equally effective halfcourt defense to force 17 Fort Kent turnovers before intermission.
“We really just made sure we knew the strengths of our opponent and we prepared very well the last two days to make sure we knew where they were the whole game and stayed locked in,” Case said. “Obviously on defense the girls are super motivated to play a certain style.”
The Howlers also pounded the offensive glass early in the game, with Cummings grabbing nine rebounds in the first 11 minutes alone.
Fort Kent took a 3-2 lead on a 3-pointer by Lily Werntgen with 5:18 left in the opening quarter before Penobscot Valley took control with 16 unanswered points to build an 18-3 advantage when Cummings followed in her own miss to open the second period.
Penobscot Valley outrebounded the smaller Fort Kent front line 10-3 during that stretch and scored 10 of its points off rebounds or turnovers before Hannah Lovely finally countered for Fort Kent with a press-breaking floater from the lane with 6:41 left in the first half.
Fort Kent then got a free throw from Oliver to cut the gap to 18-6 before Penobscot Valley went on another big run, this time scoring the final 13 points of the half with Rylee Moulton contributing a 3-pointer and Brooklynn Raymond and Ashlyn St. Cyr each cashing in on Fort Kent turnovers with two-point goals.
“We know that we have to keep teams off the offensive boards to win games, and we have a lot of size and that helps a lot,” said the 5-foot-10 Austin. “A lot of people probably think it’s intimidating to have people our size out there, and we have a lot of [arm] length, too. That helps with deflections.”
It was Penobscot Valley briefly experiencing turnover issues at the outset of the second half, giving up the ball six times in the first 2:40 of the third quarter, but Fort Kent couldn’t capitalize against the Howlers’ relentless defense.
By the end of the period, Penobscot Valley’s lead was 46-12.