AUBURN — Having the upper hand the entire game allowed Central Maine Community College the luxury of getting the entire team into the act.
The halftime score, with the Mustangs leading by two dozen and the opposition held to single digits, was a dead giveaway that undefeated CMCC was well on its way to a 72-28 victory over Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences on Friday night.
“(The Panthers) were definitely overmatched, but this is an opportunity to prove for us to that the scoreboard doesn’t dictate our standards,” CMCC coach Andrew Morong said. “That’s why we don’t have garbage time in our program.
“You need to go out there and prove it that you can do all the little things. This is a great opportunity for us to really show our depth a little bit and get some kids some minutes who didn’t really get a lot of minutes. That is just going to help us later on as we continue to develop our depth, and it allowed a lot of first-year players to get some important minutes.”
Morong said the Mustangs (10-0) made “some consistent steps toward constituency in the game.”
“We’ve been talking a lot about owning our roles and doing our jobs … I think some of our players made some strides in that today,” he added. “It was just great to show our depth a little bit and push some kids out of their comfort zone as they are trying to figure out how to play college basketball.”
Sophomore guard Emily Strachan led the team with 10 points, followed by eight points apiece by Kali Thompson (4 for 4 at foul line), Elizabeth Barrientos and Rana Duzant.
Barrientos echoed her coach’s comments in a game where the Panthers (0-3) were overmatched.
“Honestly, it is just a test for us to show what we can do no matter who we are playing against — showing whose strengths are going to come out and who is going to step off the bench,” she said. “Everybody has to show what they can do and perform and have their best game no matter who they are playing against.”
The Panthers, who trailed 29-5 at halftime, scored only 11 points over three quarters before closing the game with another 17 points in the fourth quarter.
For the Panthers, Clare Snell scored the game-high 20 points and made good on three of her six 3-pointer attempts. Those were the Panthers’ only made shots from behind the arc on 11 attempts, and they were held to 8 for 44 shooting (18.2%).
“We haven’t been practicing,” Albany coach Lauren Stock said. “We’ve been plagued by injuries and stuff. I kind of told the women in the beginning that my expectation what I was looking in this game is come together during the adversity. We knew we were kind of outmatched … and for me, I wanted to kind of be able to lull the storm.”
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