AUGUSTA – Bryan Adams thought it was a splendid summer. The Eagles perceived a spirit worth warbling about in their signature song.

But if you’re a Leavitt Area High School girls’ basketball player, the mystery and magic of 1969 aren’t music to the ears. Nor is the sight of that chronological milepost a sight for sore eyes, particularly when it tells a visitor to your gymnasium that it’s the last time your hoop program accomplished anything of note.

“Basically it was just, ‘Change the banner,’ whatever you can do,” said Leavitt junior Courtney Anderson. “We were sick of looking up and seeing that as the last (championship) date.”

Leavitt officially transitioned those words from a mantra to a mission accomplished Saturday night, denying Winslow’s fourth-quarter rally to prevail 59-51 in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B championship at Cony High School’s Ryan Family Gym.

“It’s just a step in the right direction,” added Anderson, who was named the league’s player of the year in a post-game ceremony. “We want more than this.”

Anderson’s freshman sister Kristen figuratively wielded the scissors that cut the two crooked numbers and the two round ones for that banner revision.

The younger Anderson scored eight of her game-high 22 points in the first quarter, helping the Hornets (18-1) accumulate a double-digit lead.

Later, when Winslow thrice trimmed its deficit to two points in the fourth period, Kristen Anderson scored nine straight points on four shots in a span of less than 2 1/2 minutes.

“We had to keep our heads in the game and just go out and win it,” said Kristen Anderson, who supplemented her scoring with five steals.

Courtney Anderson and Amanda Jordan each added 11 points. Adrie Newton chipped in nine points and a team-high five rebounds.

Megan Pelletier, a 6-foot-1 forward, produced 20 points and Elizabeth Ferry, a 5-11 center, fashioned 16 for the Black Raiders (15-4). 

“It was two different styles of basketball,” said Leavitt coach Tammy Anderson. “They’ve got the big girls, and we just don’t have that kind of size. We’ve scouted all the teams two or three times, and the motto from here on out is that we’re going to have to play our style.”

Lynsey Vigue scored her entire seven for Winslow in the fourth quarter, kicked off with a 3-pointer that reduced Leavitt’s advantage to 43-41 with 4:42 left.

Vigue answered Kristen Anderson’s steal and transition hoop with a drive of her own. Anderson’s off-balance jumper from the free-throw line inspired a short leaner by Pelletier, and it remained 47-45.

“We called time out, pulled ’em off and said that we were playing not to lose,” Tammy Anderson said. “Here we are in this position where we’ve been waiting to be forever, and it was almost like we were being too conservative and also too tentative defensively.”

Kristen Anderson’s fourth 3-pointer of the game calmed those frayed nerves.

Abbey Randall quarterbacked the rest of the finishing kick, finding Newton for a 15-foot baseline jumper and feeding Jordan for the start of a conventional 3-point play.

Leavitt broke Winslow’s press and located Jordan for another easy deuce to cement the title with a minute to go.

“This was a step for us,” Jordan said. “It’s been one of our goals for a long time.”

Seeded second in the Western Class B tournament, Leavitt will face No. 7 Gray-New Gloucester in a quarterfinal Tuesday, Feb. 16 at Portland Expo.

The Hornets reached the Eastern Class A quarters last winter after a 1-17 season two years ago.

“This is a little monkey off our back,” said Coach Anderson. “Amanda Jordan wrote a story in the school paper her freshman year about us wanting to change the banner. I’ve coached most of these kids since kindergarten, and whenever we would practice or play at the high school, that’s what they would talk about. ‘We have to fix that.’ ”

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