AUGUSTA — Heidi Deery doesn’t like to have to waste timeouts early.
As her Rangeley girls’ basketball team started its Western D semifinal Thursday morning, the Laker coach knew she needed to do something to regroup her team.
As hard as Deery tried, her Lakers couldn’t seem to shake its early funk. Rangeley fell behind early and found some momentum late. The Lakers made it close down the stretch but couldn’t overcome that early deficit. Valley ended the Lakers season with another semifinal stunner with a 50-47 victory.
“I just felt like we weren’t really settled in,” said Deery. “Down here against Gordon (Hartwell) you’re not going to fare too well if you don’t do that. I called some timeouts early, which I don’t like to do. I tried to get people to settle in but we never did. I take my hat off to Gordon and his girls. They had a lot to do with why we didn’t settle in.”
Valley (13-6) had beaten the Lakers 60-54 to end the regular season, and Hartwell has now beaten Rangeley six-of-eight times in the tourney.
“It did show us that we could compete with them,” said Hartwell, whose team missed the tourney last year. “They’re a tough team.”
Cindy Schultz, who missed last year to a knee injury, led the Cavaliers with 16 points while Shannon Rich had 10. Valley also got a strong game inside from Hali McQuilkin with eight and Ashley Hines and Krissy Hackley with six each.
“I knew we would have to have contributions from the whole team,” said Hartwell, whose team boxed out and defended far better than it did in a nail-biter of a quarterfinal against Greater Portland Christian. “She was going to concentrate on Cindy. They were going to focus on her. We needed other people to contribute, and I really thought we stepped up. They did that right from the start.”
Rangeley (16-3) got 17 from Emily Carrier and 10 from Chantal Carrier. Jenney Abbott had a nice game with eight, six coming in the fourth. Tori Letarte also did a fine defensive job on Schultz off the bench when Sierra Machacos had early foul trouble.
Still, Valley was able to muddle up the Laker offense. Rangeley struggled to get in sync, and when the Cavaliers started hitting shots, the Lakers couldn’t match it.
“We talked a lot about helping out on the Carriers,” said Schultz, who scored 36 to beat the Lakers in the regular season. “We ended up doing that. We tried to force Chantal Carrier right because she’s left-handed. Then the wings would drop on her and we’d have someone stay with Emily.”
The Lakers missed their first six shots of the first quarter and finished 1-for-8. Then they missed the first five shots of the second quarter and went 1-for-6.
“That second quarter hurt us,” said Deery. “We had just two field goals at halftime. That’s just not us. You’ve really got to look at us and say what didn’t we do? We were getting the looks, but they just didn’t go.”
Though Valley missed its first seven shots, McQuilkin scored twice in the post and Schultz had a three-point play to build the early lead.
“The key for us was getting Hali involved and getting it down low,” said Hartwell. “She missed her first two shots on good looks, but she didn’t go away.”
The early baskets inside helped established Valley’s inside presence. The Cavaliers controlled the boards, especially defensively, and set up shots from the outside.
In the second quarter, McQuilkin had a basket and free throw. Then Schultz hit a 3 and Hackely drilled a pair of 3’s. Hines added a basket at the buzzer.
“I worked a lot in the offseason,” said Schultz, who was the tourney MVP as a sophomore before her knee injury last year. “I’d shoot baskets every day.”
Rangeley went almost eight minutes between field goals and turned the ball over 12 times in the first half. The Lakers were rushing shots and often getting only one try on the offensive end.
“They had a lot of help from other people today,” said Deery. “That’s a team. That’s what you’re supposed to do. We knew we need to have all five people on the floor contribute offensively. I think that hurt us.”
After being up 27-15 at the half, the lead expanded to as many as 32-15 when Rangeley started the third just 1-for-6 and finished 4-for-14. The Lakers came to life in the fourth and made a run at it. The Lakers played stronger defense and started hitting some shots. Rangeley also hit eight straight from the line, 9-of-13 overall in the fourth.
Rangeley had a run off 8-2 that closed the gap to 43-37 with 3:39 left. Rich answered with a pair of jumpers. The Lakers got within 47-40 on two Emily Carrier free throws. After Schultz made it 49-40 from the line with 1:32 left, Rangeley got a rebound from Abbott and a 3 from Emily Carrier to make it 49-45 with 17 seconds left. Rich hit a free throw to pad the lead, and the Lakers ran out of time.
“I wish we had had that kind of intensity to start,” said Deery of her team’s surge in the final quarter. “I think things might have gone differently.”
kmills@sunjournal.com
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