Anna DeWolfe, left, and Madison Storey of Greely compete for an offensive rebound with Julia Colby, right, Jade Smedberg and Cassidy Dumont of Oxford Hills on Saturday. (Portland Press Herald photo by Derek Davis)
CUMBERLAND — There were multiple times during Saturday’s game that it looked like Oxford Hills had no shot to win against Greely. But after fighting back from as many as 20 points down in the third quarter, Vikings guard Julia Colby did have a shot to win it.
Colby’s quick-trigger 3-point attempt wasn’t meant to be, however, and the Rangers held on for a 69-67 inter-conference girls’ basketball victory.
“I mean, it looked good from me, from my angle,” Greely coach Todd Flaherty said. “So I thought she made it. And, you know, she’s the type of player that makes that type of shot, so we’re lucky it rattled out. We really are.”
Colby, meanwhile, had little faith that her shot with 0.4 seconds left was going to go in.
“I just kind of chucked it up, hoping that it would be close,” Colby said.
That the Vikings (9-2) even got that close to winning in the first place had a lot to do with Colby, who led Oxford Hills with 25 points, with 22 of those coming in the second half.
“As a coach, I kind of challenged her at halftime … and said that she needs to step up, and she did,” Oxford Hills coach Nate Pelletier said.
Colby said her team played “scared” in the first half, which saw the Vikings trail 36-24 after falling behind 21-7 at the end of the first quarter. But a passionate Pelletier speech helped right the Vikings’ ship.
“You know, at halftime it was really just me telling the girls that I just want to see some fight in them,” Pelletier said.
But that fight looked to be not enough when Anna DeWolfe’s three-point play gave the Rangers (11-0) a 52-32 lead with 4:15 left in the third quarter.
“I think we kind of let up a little bit in the third quarter,” DeWolfe said. “I just remember looking up in the fourth and seeing that we’re only up by four points. It kind of snuck up on all of us, I think.”
“We missed a few shots, too, that we normally hit that might have extended the lead at one time, and gave them plenty of opportunity,” Flaherty said. “And then we had a few turnovers that, you know, cost us too.”
DeWolfe scored nine of her 26 points in the third, and Camille Clement did the same, but both were much quieter in thr fourth, scoring only four and two, respectively.
The Vikings started hitting their shots in the fourth. Colby and Cassidy Dumont (16 points) both hit a pair of 3s. And DeWolfe gave the Vikings a chance to tie the game at 69 apiece when she was called for a foul on a Colby 3-point attempt with 1.4 seconds left.
But the sure-shooting Colby saw her first of three foul shots go in and out, and admitted she was “really disappointed” with herself. She recovered to make the second, then after intentionally missing the third the ball went out of bounds off Greely with 0.4 seconds remaining.
Flaherty called a timeout, which helped out Pelletier — who had used his final timeout with 6.5 seconds left.
“I had to draw something up for them. And it sort of work out the way I wanted it to, and the ball went in and out,” Pelletier said. “You know, what can I say? The ball goes in, it’s a different conversation right now.”
wkramlich@sunjournal.com
Cassidy Dumont of Oxford Hills blocks a pass attempt by Julia Martel of Greely on Saturday. (Portland Press Herald photo by Derek Davis)) Camille Clement of Greely shoots over Cecelia Dieterich of Oxford Hills on Saturday. (Portland Press Herald photo by Derek Davis)Anna DeWolfe of Greely tries to get around Cecelia Dieterich of Oxford Hills on Saturday. (Portland Press Herald photo by Derek Davis)Whitney Bailey of Oxford Hills blocks a shot by Camille Clement of Greely on Saturday. (Portland Press Herald photo by Derek Davis)
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