HEBRON — Hebron Academy’s shots weren’t falling, but its defense took care of business in a 34-22 girls’ basketball victory on Wednesday.
The Lumberjacks held the Guardians to four points in the first half, and took a 16-4 lead into halftime.
“I thought we played well,” Hebron junior Maddy New, of Poland, said. “We were running a press that we hadn’t run before, and I thought that went really well, and that kind of stopped them from scoring.”
“We did a lot of great things on the defensive side of the ball,” Lumberjacks coach Colin Griggs said.
“We knew that we were going to have the opportunity to pick off passes, and we did well picking off passes. Defensively, we didn’t get into foul trouble, which is huge — that has been an issue for us over that last two years.”
Sophomore guard Franceska Halloran, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, was the lone player from either team to get going offensively in the first half, scoring 10 of Hebron’s 16 points.
Halloran scored four quick points to open the game — she made a layup, then stole the ball and made another layup — and Reily New, also of Poland, added a free throw to give Hebron a 5-2 lead only 72 seconds into the first quarter.
“We actually played as a team, and we moved the ball more than we usually do,” Halloran said.
It would be three minutes before the Lumberjacks scored again, on another free throw by Reily New. Later, Maddy New hit a jumper and Halloran drilled a 3-pointer to make the score 11-4 after one quarter.
Neither squad found much offensive success in the second quarter.
Reily New scored in the post off a nice pass from Eliza Quinones, and Halloran hit a free throw and then scored on a fast break in the final seconds. That was all of the Lumberjacks’ scoring in the period. The Guardians, meanwhile, were shut out in the second.
“We actually moved the ball around better than we have been, but our shots weren’t falling,” Griggs said.
“Offensively, I thought we were good. If our shots had fallen, we could have had more points.”
Halloran hit three 3-pointers in the third quarter, which was all of the Lumberjacks’ scoring in the period, and finished with a game-high 19 points.
“She carried us today,” Griggs said. “And she was good defensively, too, and I think that kick-started her offense. She was able to get some fast-break points off of steals, and I thought that helped us.”
Halloran finished with four steals.
“They did a good job of guarding Maddy one-on-one, and she had a tough game getting going,” Griggs added, “and as a result, Fran (Halloran) had a great pick-up of that.”
The Guardians’ third quarter was its best of the game. They put up 10 points, but only cut one point off of the deficit, and the score after three was 25-14.
Maddy New finally found her offensive touch at the start of the fourth quarter, scoring nine straight points to extend the Lumberjacks’ advantage to 34-14 and essentially put the game away.
“I looked at the scoreboard and realized that we only had (25) points, and that’s normally not what we have,” Maddy New said. “I decided that it has to start with somebody, and so I decided to take it into my own hands.”
Maddy New finished with 11 points, while Reily New had four. Quinones grabbed 11 rebounds and had a team-high four assists. Louisa Ellis came off the bench and pulled down nine rebounds, including five off the offensive glass.
Seacoast Christian (2-7) was lead by Abby Wirling, who scored seven points. Courtney Williams and Ally Akerberg each added four points.
Hebron (3-3), which has won two straight games, next plays at Hyde (1-4) on Saturday.
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