BANGOR, Maine — It’s understandable to feel a tad rusty when you haven’t played a meaningful basketball game in a month or so.
Some of the McDonald’s senior all-stars on the East Classes C-D girls team shook off said rust and shined brightly at Husson University’s Newman Gymnasium Saturday, as four players scored in double figures en route to a 73-54 win over the West squad.
The West A-B team defeated the East 66-51 earlier in the day.
In the C-D game, this one had all the makings of a classic all-star barn burner early, as neither team led by more than six in the first half with the West taking a 35-33 lead into halftime.
But the East got into a better offensive flow and started to pull away with a 10-3 run to open the second half.
“I think it was just not playing for a while. I know Maddie [Park] was in the state game, but nobody else [on our team] was, so we hadn’t played in forever,” explained Penobscot Valley of Howland star Casey McCloskey.
“Once we realized, ‘oh this is how we’re supposed to play’ in the second half, it kind of clicked,” she added.
George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill star Park was one of four East players in double figures with 11 points,
Park, who was the MVP of the Eastern Class C tourney, paced a balanced offense in which Anika Powers of Deer Isle-Stonington also scored 11 points while Sam Lyons of Stearns of Millinocket and Penquis of Milo’s Erica Lyford notched 10 apiece.
That balanced effort showcased the sound chemistry that the East stars possessed.
“We’re all from the East, so we all have that bond and we really wanted to beat the West,” said Park.
Lyford’s baseline runner at the 7:21 mark of the second half — moments after Waynflete of Portland’s Mariam Qazi had canned a deep pull-up 3-pointer — jumpstarted a 15-2 East run which gave it a 17-point lead.
After Qazi’s 3-pointer, the West only hit one field goal the rest of the game, which came as time expired.
“We definitely stepped it up, we hustled more, we did better rebounding,” said Lyons, who led her team’s balanced rebounding effort with six.
Lee Academy coach Ron Weatherbee, who skippered the East alongside Woodland’s Arnold Clark, could also sense the chemistry on the floor.
“They’ve played against each other a lot and some of them have played together on AAU teams,” he said.
McCloskey and Park are an example of that, as they’ve played on coach Bill Libby’s AAU Northstars.
“It was really nice getting to play with them again before high school was over,” McCloskey said.
Mount Abram of Salem’s Kenni Norton led the West with 14 points while Qazi added nine.
Park got on quite a roll before the game even started, as she won the 3-point contest held between the A-B and C-D matchups, hitting 12 of a possible 25 shots.
Aimee Mortensen of Class A Biddeford ended up second in the event with 11 while Emily Pelletier of Fort Kent hit nine shots to finish third.
The contest is slightly similar to the Home Run Derby in baseball in the sense that it’s essential to get a rhythm going.
“Once you get the first couple in, it sticks,” Park said.
In the A-B game, the West used a pair of first-half runs to jump all over the East and build a 16-point halftime lead.
Mortensen’s short pull-up early in the half sparked a 10-0 run which gave the West a double-digit lead six minutes into the contest, while York’s Meredith Reid converted a conventional 3-point play in the final seconds to give the West a comfortable advantage.
The East tried to mount a comeback early in the second half behind Miss Maine Basketball winner Morgan Frame, as the Waterville star hit a couple of shots from in close to help bring the East back within single digits.
But the East hit only six field goals the rest of the way and the West gradually pulled away and led by as many as 24.
Reid led a balanced West attack with 11 points while Portland’s Nyachuol Biliew and Michelle Williams of Marshwood in South Berwick netted 10 apiece.
Frame led all East players with 10 points while Claire Baecher of Brunswick had eight and Leah Jackson of Brewer and Melanie Cloutier of Oxford Hills of South Paris had seven apiece.
rmclaughlin@bangordailynews.net
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