PARIS — There were some first-game jitters from both teams as Lewiston and Oxford Hills tipped off the high school girls’ basketball season Friday night. Neither team could make a basket for the first couple minutes, but the more experienced Vikings found the inside of the rim first.
They also found it more often, getting ahead early and never looking back for a 46-34 victory in a KVAC clash.
Erin Morton broke the ice with a layup 2:20 into the contest for Oxford Hills (1-0). The Vikings went up 4-0 before Morgan Eliasen’s bank shot gave the Blue Devils (0-1) their first points nearly four minutes into the opening quarter.
Lewiston didn’t score again in the period, but not for a lack of trying. Nothing else fell for the Blue Devils, who trailed a similarly poor shooting Oxford Hills 11-2 after one quarter.
“We do have a very young team,” Lewiston head coach Lynn Girouard said. “Easy bunnies are something that we got to put in. And our nerves got to us a little bit in the first half.”
“We did miss some shots early, but we were getting the shots that we wanted,” Oxford Hills head coach Nate Pelletier said. “Eventually they started falling.”
The Blue Devils got on the board first in the second quarter, as Victoria Harris hit a short jumper 1:25 in. Tiana Sugars made a layup nearly one minutes later for the Vikings’ first points of the period.
Oxford Hills pulled further away late in the quarter, as Morton’s pull-up jumper with 2:30 left stretched the lead double digits (21-10) for the first time. A wide-open layup in transition from Jadah Adams 30 seconds later made it 23-10.
“The one thing that this group brings to the table every night is energy. I love the energy, I love the high-intensity defense,” Pelletier said, as his team showed a propensity for turning defense into offense.
Jayden Colby put a stamp on the Vikings’ first-half effort with another wide-open layup with three seconds left.
Maighread Laliberte scored six of her 10 points in the period for Oxford Hills.
“Maighread is probably one of the most athletic kids in the league,” Pelletier said. “She rips down some rebounds, she finishes really well. And we have high expectations for her throughout this whole year.”
The Oxford Hills defense smothered Lewiston in the third quarter, holding the Blue Devils to just four points and one field goal — a Harris basket that was part of a three-point play with 1:39 left in the quarter.
The Viking lead was 34-19 after three, and an Erin Eastman 3-pointer stretched that to and 18-point advantage less than a minute into the fourth.
The young Blue Devils (just two seniors) fought back to make the score respectable in the fourth quarter, however. Eliasen poured in six of her 10 points in the final period, and senior Alasia Branche had all three of hers in the fourth.
“That’s all I ask, is that they don’t stop fighting,” Girouard said. “And they didn’t stop fighting.”
Harris finished with a game-high 12 points for Lewiston.
“She played for me as a freshman. She’s got a lot of varsity minutes under her belt, and I think that she’ll be a definite asset for us later on in the year,” Girouard said of Harris. “She’s just got to settle down. She’s still young.”
Laliberte and Morton each scored 10 for the Vikings.
“When you open the season, you’re just trying to get a ‘W,'” Pelletier said. “But overall the girls played hard, and that’s all I’m looking for.
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
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