At the risk of oversimplifying matters, that distinction appeared to make all the difference in the fourth quarter on Friday night.
Two evenly matched MVC teams went in opposite directions on the neutral court at Lewiston High School, with eight unanswered points reversing the Raiders’ direction to a 29-21 win.
“We’re young. It’s the first time we’ve ever been on this court,” St. Dom’s coach Jon Berry said. “One of the girls after said she was a little intimidated by the surroundings. In the preseason the green lights were plentiful. We had some girls who looked pretty nervous tonight.”
St. Dom’s sank all five of its shots from the field in the third quarter. The Saints were 4-for-25 in the remainder of the contest, missing 5-of-7 in the fourth, while committing 22 turnovers on the night.
And the Raiders heated up, with senior Grace Sabine scoring seven of her game-high 16 points in the fourth.
Her offensive rebound and cross-court pass led to a 3-pointer by Sara Noel to cap the 8-0 run that gave Oak Hill a 23-17 lead with 5:12 left. Sabine also made four steals.
“Grace was big tonight,” Oak Hill coach Charlie Castonguay said. “She’s very deceptive. You’d better be making good passes, because she’s got quick hands. She played well. She’s a good inside-outside player.”
Allie Veinote led St. Dom’s with eight points and four assists. Chloe Dwinell, double-teamed almost every time she caught the ball in the post, added five points, 11 rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocked shots.
St. Dom’s trailed 8-5 at halftime and endured a scoreless streak of 14:29.
“Oak Hill was able to sag off and put a little extra help on Chloe and a little extra help on Allie, and those are probably the only names they remember from last year at all,” Berry said. “Other girls needed to step up and they did here and there. It’s early.”
Veinote beat the third-period buzzer with a 3-pointer to out the Saints in front, 16-15. Dwinell hit a free throw to get St. Dom’s started in the fourth before Oak Hill rallied.
The Raiders prevailed despite shooting 8-for-37 (22 percent).
“We played here Monday night and shot the ball much better in a scrimmage against Lewiston, but opening-night jitters were definitely here tonight,” Castonguay said. “We said tonight we had to win this game playing good defense and rebounding, and that’s what we did.”
Veinote also started the game with a 3-pointer. Caroline Gastonguay added a jumper from the top of the key for a 5-0 lead before the Saints went cold.
Sabine’s free throw was the only point for Oak Hill in the first quarter, but she followed Noel’s putback with a 3-pointer to land the lead.
Oak Hill grabbed 14 rebounds in the second period, six on the offensive glass, to overcome a feisty defensive effort by St. Dom’s.
“We didn’t communicate a whole lot defensively. That led to just a couple of lapses in our rotations,” Berry said. “But they only got two or three easy shots the entire game.”
Jamie Prue’s 3-pointer and an uncontested 12-footer by Sabine opened the Raiders’ largest lead of the game to that point, 13-7, with 5:48 to go in the third.
Abby Castonguay, Dwinell and Rileigh Stebbins scored six unanswered points to pull St. Dom’s even.
“Their center is going to be a really good player,” Castonguay said of Dwinell. “Everything goes around her.”
Stebbins’ basket made it 23-19 with four minutes left before Sabine rained down a 3 to close it out.
“I thought it was a pretty quiet 16 (points, but defensively) she got her hand on lot of the extra dribbles,” Berry said of Sabine. “I thought we tried too much dribbling. We didn’t have the guard that can go coast-to-coast yet.”
koakes@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
