Spruce Mountain’s Abigail Ortiz (15), Kaylin Knowlton (22) and Dirigo’s Alexa Perreault (2) all reach for the ball during the second half in Dixfield on Saturday. Tony Blasi/Sun Journal Buy this Photo
DIXFIELD — It got physical real quick in the fourth quarter and the whistles started blowing, leading to numerous trips to the foul line, but Dirigo wouldn’t let go at Defoe Gymnasium.
Each time Spruce Mountain closed in, the Phoenix were met with stiff resistance by the Cougars, who held on for a 41-36 victory in a Mountain Valley Conference girls basketball season opener Saturday night.
“They are young and so is Spruce Mountain,” Dirigo coach Reggie Weston said. “We just haven’t had enough practice. We had two snow dates. We missed two practices there.
“The thing that we are working on from last year is hit the floor. Even though I thought we got belted a little bit tonight, I told them, ‘You guys have to be tough like them.’ And they got after it and they didn’t get down after they made bad passing mistakes, so they are learning.”
The two teams kept fans strapped to their seats as a fourth-quarter brouhaha raged before the Cougars finished off the relentless Phoenix at the foul line.
“They didn’t die; they didn’t quit,” Weston said. “But they were resilient. They stayed in the game and kept up with it.
“They gave us a hard time with the press. So we wanted to spread the floor if they wanted to penetrate.”
By halftime, though, Spruce Mountain was out in front, 17-12, in this low-scoring battle.
With Dirigo leading 26-23 after three quarters, the contest could have still gone either way.
Spruce Mountain’s Summer Chretien (0) tries intervene as Dirigo’s Jayce Trophy (3) takes the ball down court in a Mountain Valley Conference basketball season opener in Dixifeld on Saturday night. Tony Blasi/Sun Journal Buy this Photo
With 4:24 left in the game and Dirigo out in front, Spruce guard Jacyee Cole slipped the ball to Auriana Armandi, who was racing toward the basket and scored to move Spruce to within one point of Dirigo, 30-29.
Cole (team-leading to 11 points) scored to tie the game at 31-31 with 4:09 left.
But that’s when the Cougars started making endless trips to the foul line, going 17-for-26 from the charity stripe in the game. Guard Page Lueders went 8-for-8 from the free-throw line and finished with 10 points.
Spruce Mountain made one last effort and closed the gap to 37-36 when Cole scored again with 43.4 seconds left in the game.
But a key blocked shot by Destiny Jackson and Lueders’ two foul shots pushed Dirigo’s lead to three points, 39-36. Another pair of foul shots with 0.5 seconds left made it a 41-36 win for the Cougars.
Lex Perreault led all scorers with 12 points for Dirigo.
“I gave them four things to make sure things didn’t happen to beat them,” Spruce Mountain coach Zach Keene said. “I don’t know how many offensive rebounds we gave up, but we were in the 20s, so you come to a place like this and you do that, it puts you in a tough position.
“We had a chance to tie it there, and the way we played … we have to be better. We played hard. We didn’t quit, which is all fine in good, but we still have to make more plays than we did.
“It was just a missed opportunity. We will get them again at the end of the season.”
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