FREEPORT — First-night jitters — and errors — got the best of both teams Friday night as Poland opened its 2016-17 girls’ basketball campaign at Freeport High School.
The Falcons and visiting Knights struggled mightily out of the gate, combining on just five points in the first seven minutes of play. By halftime, both sides were in desperate need of an adjustment, but only one made it.
The Knights drove to the basket over and over again in the second half, drawing contact and converting free-throws that eventually led to a decisive 40-20 road win.
“He did a great job with his packed-in zone and forced us to play at a slower pace than we’d like to,” Freeport coach Mike Hart said. “I think he had a good game plan. We didn’t execute on our offensive end and when we had chances to make easy shots, we happened to miss them.”
Despite mustering just 12 points in the first half, Freeport (0-1) stuck around and clawed at the Poland (1-0) lead in the third quarter. A bucket, quick steal and another bucket from Taylor Dostie forced a timeout and cut the lead to 19-16 at the 3:16 mark.
“It was a pretty close game until he started to stall off minutes on the clock and preserve that lead that he had,” Hart said. “It was a good move by (Poland coach mike Susi). It was certainly something that slowed the pace down for us. Hard to play from behind when you don’t have the basketball.”
After the timeout, Nathalie Theriault and Poland took over. A 5-0 run to end the frame propelled the Knights into the fourth, where their halftime plan really got going.
Constant penetrating and foul-drawing drives to the basket led to trip after trip to the free-throw line. All but three of Poland’s buckets (all from Theriault) in the frame came from the stripe and led to 16 points.
“Coach really pushed us to attack until somebody tried to pick up on us, tried to stop us,” Theriault said. “We knew we had to take care of the ball because their press was good. We had to really cherish the ball and every second we had with it.”
“They were playing two people on Nathalie,” Susi said. “We needed to get the ball up the court. We talked about ‘catch it, attack until somebody stops you and then make the next logical pass.’”
Theriault led all scorers with 22 and hauled in nine boards on top of two assists. She gave Freeport fits in the second half, often dribbling through double-teams and finding teammates in the paint. She hit 10-of-12 free-throws after halftime.
“Her athleticism,” Susi said. “And her heart. She’s the kind of kid that’s going to give you everything that she’s absolutely got. She doesn’t quit on the play, ever.”
On the other end of the floor, turnover after turnover plagued the Falcons, who never adjusted to the Poland press. It was a “tempo thing that we weren’t able to overcome,” said Hart.
Slow start
A last-second bucket from Poland’s Jessica Steeley kept the score from being 3-2 at the end of the first quarter. Both sides turned the ball over multiple times in the backcourt and there were nine steals in the first frame alone.
“There could have been a little bit of jitters,” Susi said. “I think mostly, though, we didn’t focus. Came out a little flat in the first half. We didn’t focus on, on the offensive end, getting our eyes on the rim, playing through contact and finishing. We had a bunch of lay-ups, we just didn’t finish them.”
“We have old players that came back and we have some new ones,” Theriault said. “We all had nerves. Even us players that are juniors, we all had nerves.”
Freeport’s lone bucket came inside from Megan Lynch, who added a second-quarter lay-up and a hoop-and-harm play late to finish with a team-high seven points. Freshman Caroline Smith added five points off the bench and Taylor Rinaldi finished with four.
The Falcons had almost as many offensive boards as they did points in the second half.
“At the end of the day, you have to tip the hat to them. They played harder than we did,” Hart said of Poland.
Freeport converted 2-of-9 free throws, while Poland hit 19-of-31.
“We’ve got to come back in the gym tomorrow,” Hart said. “We didn’t put together a good couple weeks of practice. We’ve got to execute better tomorrow, as soon as we get into the gym.”
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