By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

BANGOR – Despite a dismal showing in the first half, the Mt. Blue Cougars had every reason to look at the glass as half full rather than half empty.

The Cougars struggled on offense in their Eastern A quarterfinal game with Messalonskee, but Mt. Blue was still tied at the half.

Looking on the bright side didn’t last long in the second half. The Eagles found the offensive spark needed while the Cougars continued searching for their own catalyst. By the time Mt. Blue’s offense started to click it was too late. Messalonskee’s strong third quarter proved decisive in a 50-34 victory.

“We have a third quarter curse,” said Mt. Blue coach Jeannine Paradis. “We sometimes come out flat in the third quarter and tonight it hurt us. The fourth quarter we came back on. We need to get over that hump and work on that for next year.”

Fifth-ranked Messalonskee (16-4) scored 12 straight points during a 21-5 third-quarter run. Chelsea Barker led the Eagles with 15 points. Her twin sister, Amanda, added 12 points.

“We just picked up the intensity in the second half,” said Chelsea Barker “We just knew we had to pick it up. We knew the first few minutes of the third quarter are the most important. We came out with a lot more intensity and tried to take them out of their game.”

Christina Mosher had 10 for the Cougars while Bonnie Silkman added eight.

Fourth-ranked Mt. Blue (16-4) struggled in the first half to produce anything. The Cougars committed 11 turnovers in the first quarter and seven more in the second. Mt. Blue shot 5-for-14 in the first half.

“Having young kids isn’t an excuse because Messalonskee has young kids,” said Paradis. “Their young kids have had more of a chance to execute. My kids are still learning to play the game. We needed to feed it into Christina a lot more, and we didn’t.”

The only reason Mt. Blue was tied 13-13 at the half was because the Eagles couldn’t get its offense on track. The Cougars sealed off the inside and forced Messalonskee to live on perimeter shots. The Eagles never got their transition going and were successful on 5-of-23 shots in the first half.

“We knew the first game we played we gave them a hard time with our zone press,” said Barker, whose team lost to Mt. Blue by three in the regular season. “We knew defense was going to win it, and we didn’t worry about our offense.”

The Eagles found a quick fix for its scoring drought in the second half. Messalonskee picked up the pace and finally penetrated the defense for some quality shots.

A Mosher three-point play opened the second half and put the Cougars up 16-13. But Mt. Blue didn’t score again until 2:06 remained in the quarter. By then, it was 25-16.

Melissa Oliver scored on a press breaker to start an Eagles’ string of 12 consecutive points.

Mosher snapped the run, but two scores from Amanda Barker were followed by a 3-pointer from Ashley Busque. Chelsea Barker hit a jumper to finish the quarter with a 34-18 lead.

“That broke out back,” said Paradis.

Mt. Blue started to get some shots to fall in the final quarter. Silkman and Amanda Laney each hit 3-pointers while Sarah Fournier and Mosher added baskets. The Cougars closed to within 11 points with a Silkman jumper with 3:29 left, but couldn’t get closer.