AUGUSTA — Beset by injuries, illnesses and postponements, the Hall-Dale girls basketball team took its frustrations out on its rival 14 miles to the west.
Jade Graham had 19 points and 12 rebounds and Hayden Madore netted a game-high 20 points as the Bulldogs cruised to a 72-19 win over Winthrop on Wednesday in the Capital City Hoop Classic at the Augusta Civic Center.
Torie Tibbetts scored 11 points for Hall-Dale, while teammate Marie Benoit added 10 and Lucy Gray pulled down eight rebounds.
Graham, a 5-foot, 11-inch junior, bagged 14 points and nine rebounds in the first half, when Hall-Dale (3-0) built leads of 20-5 after one quarter and 34-10 after two.
She also added the passing game to her resume, as she unleashed a pair of long touchdown passes in the third quarter, first to a waiting Madore under the basket and the second to Benoit with 2 seconds left in the period.
Hall-Dale’s Lucy Gray and Winthrop’s Ella Rice battle for a rebound at the Capital City Hoop Classic on Wednesday at the Augusta Civic Center. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel
“I gotta bring my softball skills in here somehow,” quipped Graham, who plays third base for Hall-Dale’s three-time defending Class C state champion softball team.
Playing its first game in 12 days because of weather-related postponements, Hall-Dale also has had to cope with a narrow bench.
“We were down a lot of girls because of sickness and injuries, so there was lot of remaining pressure on the girls to step up and play hard all game long and get a lot of minutes,” first-year Hall-Dale coach Laurie Rowe said. “They really stepped up to the plate and they worked hard.”
Graham noted the importance of the fastbreak, using the defense to create offense.
“The running game has been there for us the last three games,” she said, “and we’re really good about running the floor and usually making our transition layups. That’s where we score the majority of our points., just girls hustling down there. It’s always exciting to get a nice little touchdown pass, though.”
Hall-Dale’s defense dominated from beginning to end; the Bulldogs held a 43-13 advantage in rebounds, and held the Ramblers (2-2) scoreless in the fourth quarter.
Madore, meanwhile, intercepted Winthrop’s passes when she wasn’t pilfering the ball right out of the Ramblers’ hands. She scored the first six points of the second quarter, including a basket off her own steal.
“We talked a lot about having hands in the passing lane to take advantage of those (Winthrop) passes, and they really stepped up and did that,” Rowe said.
With a combined 10 juniors and seniors, Hall-Dale still has much of the core of the team that captured the 2022 Class C championship at the Civic Center. The Bulldogs, who head to Londonderry, New Hampshire for a tournament Thursday and Friday, hope to return to the Civic Center in February and leave with another Gold Ball in tow.
“The Civic Center’s always a nerve-wracking experience, whether there are a lot of people here or not,” Graham said. “I think we handled the pressure extremely well.”
Brynn Stubbert led Winthrop with seven points.
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