Central Maine’s Rylee Moore, left, and Hampshire College’s Aldyn Markle jockey for space at CMCC’s Kirk Hall on Saturday Afternoon. (RAM Sport photo)
AUBURN — The Central Maine Community College women’s basketball team opened the game with a 47-point run en route to a 88-10 Yankee Small College Conference victory over Hampshire College on Saturday.
The score at the end of the first quarter was 30-0. The shutout bid almost made it to halftime, but the Black Sheep got on the scoreboard with 1:42 left in the second quarter on a short jumper by Catherine Pomeroy.
“We really like to emphasize during these games, we like to stay disciplined, we like to do what we do best,” CMCC freshman Jordyn Reynolds said. “And we like to just keep pushing and pushing harder because the end goal is just play our best game, no matter what.”
Hampshire (1-7, 0-7 YSCC) suited up only six players — five after Pomeroy fouled out in the fourth quarter. The Mustangs, even without veterans Brooke Reynolds and Kristina Blais, who had scheduled days off, had 13 players, and they all saw nine or more minutes on the court.
“(A game like this) does give us a chance to get some girls who don’t get a ton of minutes for us, to get them some more time,” Mustangs coach Andrew Morong said.
CMCC opened the game with its three post players in the starting lineup, former Edward Little standouts Jordyn Reynolds and Eraleena Gethers-Hairston, and Australian Jane Lester.
“We had a triangle system kind of going,” Lester said. “And, yeah, it didn’t seem too overcrowded. That was our first time trying it out in a game, and we really excelled.”
Those three took the game over quickly with a series of passes to each other in the post. Lester and Gethers-Hairston scored the first eight points.
“I loved our post players, the way they were sharing the ball with one another,” Morong said. “They were really asserting themselves. Jane, she was the high scorer, but she had two of the best passes of the game early on in high-low sort of stuff.”
Lester put up 23 points on 11-of-16 shooting. She also pulled down a game-high eight rebounds.
“I think that the moves that we’ve been utilizing and using and practicing is what’s been beneficial, and obviously it’s coming to life in the games,” Lester said.
Reynolds finished with 13 points and nine rebounds, and Gethers-Hairston had eight points.
“We really have been pushing the tempo harder and harder in practices,” Reynolds said. “Especially the post players have been really going at it against each other.”
Natalie Thurber scored 10 off the bench, and Cagney O’Brien chipped in eight.
“I think Cagney O’Brien had a great second half,” Morong said. “She can score. She asserts herself in practice, but she hasn’t really been doing it in a game. She was trying to score today, and I love that, because she’s a girl capable of averaging 10 points a game.”
Ellie Harrington led the Mustangs with six assists and six steals. Devona Kinsey dished out four assists.
The Mustangs maintain first place in the YSCC with a 7-0 conference mark (11-1 overall).
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