Luci Rothwell drives to the basket during Wednesday’s game against Wiscasset at Telstar High School in Bethel. Rothwell scored 28 points and grabbed 16 rebounds as the Rebels won, 52-27. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
The Telstar girls basketball team has one of the state’s best-kept secrets.
The Rebels have only won five games over the past two seasons, and just four years ago they were playing a junior varsity schedule. So Telstar is easy to overlook.
But what the Rebels do have is Luci Rothwell.
The 5-foot-11 senior forward has blossomed over throughout her career and has quietly become one of the highest producers of points and rebounds in Maine, averaging double-digits in both categories.
Rothwell’s points come from mainly around the basket, although she’s expanded her range this season. She also is a prolific rebounder at both ends of the floor, and has been since her freshman season.
“She was a little raw and her footwork was a little clumsy. She was fairly tall for a freshman, (and) you could tell she had a nose for the ball,” Telstar coach Brian Mills said. “She had a passion for the game, which always helps. She worked extremely hard.
“Anything that came off the rim, she was going after. Rebounding-wise there wasn’t many she wouldn’t get to. Sometimes she would pick up some fouls, but you didn’t have to tell her to get the ball.”
Rothwell’s gravitational pull to rebounds hasn’t gone anywhere. The last time the Mountain Valley Conference stats tallied its statistical leaders, Rothwell was on top with 19 rebounds per game (through seven games), almost five more than any other player in the conference.
“We have a young team,” Rothwell said. “We have a few bigs, myself and two other sophomores. Together we kind of get the rebounds and put it in. My role is getting rebounds and putting them back in.”
Telstar has only seven players, including Rothwell, so they all have had to play a lot of minutes. Some players were playing JV last year and have been adjusting to the varsity level. With not a lot of tallies in the win column over her career, Rothwell could have gotten frustrated. Instead, her and the team have battled together the whole season.
The Rebels earned their first two wins of the season in the past week, both against Wiscasset, last Friday and Wednesday.
“It’s been a really good senior year,” Rothwell said. “Even though we haven’t had the scoring or winning outcomes, we have quite a few games coming up that are potential wins. I have my players with me and take the games as they come. Since we are such a small school we know each other so well and play every sport together, and so we are all good friends.”
The team has become accustomed to playing with only two substitutes.
“It’s been getting easier to play a full game and with two subs,” Rothwell said. “Basically, just go out and work hard and do what we can with seven players. We hopefully are looking at some wins over the next few games.”
In Wednesday’s 52-27 victory, Rothwell scored 28 points and pulled down 16 rebounds. This season, Rothwell is averaging 20 points a game.
“Its not my goal to get ‘x’ number of points each game, it is kind of how it happens,” Rothwell said. “Sometimes it ends up that way, and sometimes girls take a lot of shots and that’s where I get my rebounds and points.”
She routinely scores more than 20, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Opponents know that the Rebels don’t have a lot experienced players, so Rothwell usually has at least two, and sometimes three players around her, trying to prevent her from scoring.
“It has been hard, specifically this year, as I have noticed more are face-guarding me this year, and I haven’t faced that, but basically I am looking for the outside shot for all the other girls,” Rothwell said. “It’s hard to go against two or three girls in the paint.”
Mills said the physical play by opponents hasn’t affected Rothwell enough to bring her production down.
“She is very coachable, but she’s sort of stubborn at times. She gets frustrated getting beat up inside, and we try to have her move outside, but she’s comfortable (in the post),” Mills said. “She keeps us competitive, and she gets up and down the floor well and can handle the ball.”
After she graduates, Rothwell hopes to play college basketball, and has talked with a few schools. She also has been playing for AAU teams in the offseason.
“Last year I started privately working with a coach, and I joined an AAU team last spring,” Rothwell said. “That gave me a different outlook on the game, and the opportunity to work with different coaches made me love the sport even more.”
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