The freshman came off the bench and led all scorers with 14 points, helping the Red Eddies to a 41-24 win over the Blue Devils on Tuesday night.
“It’s always been a big rivalry, Auburn vs. Lewiston, but we came in knowing what we had to do,” Ouellette said. “Just knowing what we had to do, and what I had to do to help contribute to it.”
Some of Ouellette’s biggest points came at the start of the second half. After Lewiston gained a bit of momentum going into the break, Ouellette opened the third quarter with four straight points to push EL’s lead to 24-12.
“I thought the freshman for us, Chantelle Ouellette, made some big shots, especially to start the second half,” Eddies coach Craig Jipson said. “She came up big.”
Jordyn Reynolds added 10 points for the Eddies. She also blocked six shots as part of a defensive effort that Jipson said was the key to the victory.
“That’s one of the better teams in our conference, a very talented team,” Jipson said. “I’m really happy with our defense. I thought we played great defense. When you hold a team like that to 24 points — I thought defensively we did some really nice things.”
EL’s press was especially effective. Lewiston likes playing fast, but coach Lynn Girouard said the Eddies’ press made the Blue Devils rush faster than they would have liked.
Lewiston junior post Victoria Harris scored the first point of the game, but soon exited due to foul trouble and spent the rest of the half on the bench. Fouls hampered the Devils’ size in the first half, as Gabrielle Wilson also spent a lot of time on the sidelines.
After Harris’ bucket, the Eddies reeled off 10 straight points to take a 10-2 lead. Their advantage grew as high as 18-7.
“It’s EL, you know? It’s a different game,” Girouard said. “No matter if they’re good, no matter if they’re not that good; no matter if we’re great — I mean, it’s always going to be a battle against EL. Always.
“And, for some reason, we take ourselves right out of the game. And I think that’s what happened tonight. It’s hard to get going when you throw the ball around. I don’t know how many turnovers we had, but it was pretty high.”
Lewiston prevented EL from pulling away, and even grabbed some momentum, by scoring five of the final seven points of the half to make it 20-12.
“There were spurts that were good,” Girouard said.
But then came Ouellette’s 4-0 run. She actually scored the Eddies’ first six points of the half, the final bucket of that run coming after Harris’ and-1 cut the lead to nine.
Harris and Skylar Gaudette led Lewiston (4-5) with seven points apiece, and freshman Hannah Chaput finished with five points.
Piper Norcross and Jade Perry added seven and six points, respectively, to help the Eddies improve to 7-2.
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