FARMINGTON — The Spruce Mountain Phoenix acted like they owned the place when they stepped into Mt. Blue’s gymnasium Tuesday night.
Actually, the Phoenix did, especially in the first half, and quickly distanced themselves from the Cougars in a girls’ basketball game, earning a 56-36 victory.
Alex Bessey threw herself at the Cougars, risking life and limb on her many trips to the net. She took one for the team when she suffered a game-stopping injury, but she was back on the court in no time to drive the Cougars crazy. She dropped in a game-high 26 points and was right on the money at the charity stripe, sinking 11 of her 13 free-throw attempts.
“She flies around, throws her body around,” Spruce Mountain coach Zachary Keene said. “We preach that our attitude has to change. We can’t continue to think that we are the underdog or that we shouldn’t win games. We need to be in attack mode at the get-go.
By halftime, the Phoenix were feeling pretty good about themselves after churning out a 41-18 lead.
The Cougars stepped it up in the third quarter, pulling to within 12 points before the Phoenix slowed it down a bit to stifle the Cougars. Sophomore Haley Turcotte helped out with 15 points.
“I think that comes with a 30-point lead at the half. I challenged them to not let that happen, but it did,” Keene said. “But they responded well and picked it back up.”
What really did it for the Phoenix was their bench, which didn’t miss a beat.
“The bench was great,” Keene said “They were engaged what was going on and then they played hard. So when you can add that to the starting lineup, that helps a lot.
For the Cougars, freshman Lexi Mittlestadt scored the team-high 14 points and threw in three 3-pointers to keep the Cougars in the game.
“They shot the lights in the first half, definitely,” Mt. Blue coach Fred Conlogue said. “I don’t think they missed any foul shots. They were just hitting everything and the momentum was there, a lot of key 3s.
“I think Leah St. Laurent did a good job with Bessey compared to what I have seen some other people do. Their other players came through in the first half. We had a better second half. The offense wasn’t definitely flowing today. I though we got off to a good start at the beginning, but just stop moving.”
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