“We were talking before the game (about how) the worst thing that could happen to either team would be kind of a blowout situation, because we need close games,” Flaherty said. “I’m glad we gave them one and we came out on top.”
Gray-NG gave Greely all it could handle for nearly 20 minutes before the Rangers pulled away and won, 68-55.
Wednesday’s showdown featured squads with two of the highest Heal point totals in the state. Both have dominated their respective regions — Greely (103.9506 points, the most in the state) is 12-1 and atop Class A South, while Gray-NG (91.2346 points, fourth in the state) is now 12-1 and in first place in Class B South.
The Patriots and Rangers went back and forth in the first half and the first few minutes of the second half, trading blow for blow and answering runs with runs.
Gray-NG scored the game’s first five points — a bucket by Skye Conley and a 3-pointer by Alicia Dumont — and built a 9-2 lead midway through the first quarter.
Greely, though, scored the next 11 points, and held a 15-13 lead after the first period.
The Patriots hung with the Rangers in the second quarter, thanks in large part to freshman Jordan Grant’s 11 points off the bench.
“Jordy Grant, my freshman, she came off the bench in the first half and really was brilliant for us,” Gray-NG coach Mike Andreasen said.
At the end of the half, the lead swapped sides five times. Grace Kariotis broke away from the defense and received a pass for a wide-open shot under the basket near the end of the half to give Gray-NG a 31-30 halftime lead.
“You’ve got to play pretty close to perfect to beat them,” Andreasen said. “The first half, we were pretty close to perfect; the second half, we weren’t.”
The lead changed hands five more times to start the second half. Isabel Porter grabbed an offensive rebound and scored to give Greely a 32-31 lead. Gray-NG’s Brianna Jordan had a putback at the other end to make it 33-32.
Brooke Obar’s layup put the Rangers up 34-33, but Kariotis’ 3-pointer at the other end put the Patriots back up 36-34.
That was Gray-NG’s last stand. Obar responded with a trey of her own, and Greely finished the third quarter with a 17-4 run that extended to a 22-4 run early in the fourth.
“That’s kind of the team we are,” Flaherty said, “we’ll get on a little run and we’ll score in spurts, and thankfully we did tonight.”
The Rangers opted to not play their press defense Wednesday, instead using a defense they’ve been practicing that would be geared toward keeping the Patriots out of the paint. Flaherty said the defense had mixed results, but in the third quarter it was on point.
“I think they were picking their dribble up on occasion, then we started getting in the passing lanes, and I think we started to cause them some problems,” Flaherty said. “We got some steals and some transition baskets.”
Moira Train was especially successful in eliminating passing lanes and snagging passes that were meant to go over the top.
Coming into Wednesday, the most points Gray-NG had given up this season was 35. Andreasen said he was satisfied with how the Patriots defense played. It was the offense that fell short.
“They had 17 steals,” Andreasen said. “They didn’t press us, so we threw the ball away, especially on our entry passes, we were just throwing them into hands, not ball-faking or bounce-passing, and we were giving them transition (opportunities).”
“In the second half, we didn’t take care of the basketball,” Andreasen added. “If you don’t take care of the basketball against them, it’s game, set, match.”
DeWolfe paced the Rangers and led all scorers with 23 points. She punctuated the victory a nifty behind-the-back pass to Katie Fitzpatrick that set up an and-one for Greely’s final points. DeWolfe said the flourish came out of necessity.
“I just saw Katie, and that was only the way I thought I could get it to her,” DeWolfe said, “and thankfully she caught it and made it, and that just brought a lot of energy to us.”
Obar finished with 12 points for Greely, while Train and Fitzpatrick had 11 apiece and Porter scored nine.
Kariotis led Gray-NG with 17 points. Jordan added 12, and Grant finished with 11.
Andreasen said the Patriots will look to rebound from their first loss of the season with a pair of tough games, first at York (10-4 in A South) on Friday, and then at home against Yarmouth (9-4 in B South) on Tuesday.
“York, who (Greely) beat by four, and Yarmouth, they’re really coming on,” Andreasen said.
“It’s really important for us to bounce back and get back on the horse, so to speak, for Friday night because — we lost a game, OK, now it’s time to turn that around; you can’t make that become something bigger than it is, which would be a (losing) streak.”
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