LEWISTON – Each team could lay claim to one good quarter Tuesday night.
It just turned out that Oxford Hills’ quarter was a little better than Lewiston’s in a 39-33 girls’ basketball victory.
The Vikings used a 13-0 run in the first half to build a double-digit lead by halftime. Lewiston made a late rally and got within four in the final minute.
“We weren’t playing anywhere above where we needed to,” said Lewiston coach Jim Hood. “We put one quarter together. We started giving them a different look on the press and that helped us out. We got close enough, but we needed to do some things defensively, and we didn’t get it done.”
Defense was the one constant for the Vikings. Oxford Hills used aggressive pressure in the second quarter. It stymied Lewiston’s offense and helped open the lead.
“We tried to do a run-and-jump situation where we try to trap a little more,” said Oxford Hills coach Nate Pelletier. “At the start of the season, we played a lot of man-to-man. We tried to involve a lot of different jump situations. This is the first game we’ve actually tried to employ it. The second quarter looked good, but the third quarter, we were looking tired.”
The Vikings had four players in double figures in a 59-46 win over Lewiston last month. Oxford Hills had balance again, despite missing starter Kristina Bowden to injury. Kari Pelletier led the Vikings (5-2) with 10 points. Terry Bunce added seven while Kyla Martin had six. Lewiston (2-6) got nine from Danielle Willey while Mallory Long and Katie Nadeau chipped in eight and seven points, respectively.
In the second quarter, Lewiston had six turnovers and managed just four shots through the first five-plus minutes. By the time Long scored with 2:02 left in the half, Oxford Hills had built a 22-9 lead.
“We have athletes on the floor most of the time,” said Pelletier. “I keep telling them to be aggressive on defense, be an offensive defensive team.”
Allison Fox, Teira Durgin, Martin and Bunce all scored from the floor to start the second quarter and Kelsea Pelletier added a pair of free throws.
Oxford Hills struggled offensively in the third quarter, but Lewiston shot 0-for-11 and went 8:44 between field goals.
“We’re not hitting the boards, and we’re not hitting foul shots,” said Hood, whose team went 2-for-13 from the line. “Those are the areas we have to go in, and we’re not playing very good defense right now. We’ve got to get a little more aggressive in all those areas.”
Lewiston was down 35-20 with 5:49 left, but a 13-2 run in the closing minutes got the Blue Devils within reach. Willey had a trio of three’s during that stretch and hit back-to-back trey’s to make it 37-33 with 46 seconds left. Bunce hit a pair of free throws to pad the lead with 25 seconds remaining.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
