OLD TOWN, Maine — There was no panic inside Caribou High School’s huddle before overtime started Friday night.
Even though Old Town’s Ashley England had just canned a late 3-pointer to send their Class B girls basketball matchup to an extra period, the Vikings stayed cool and collected themselves.
It worked to perfection, as senior point guard Jenna Selander scored 12 of her game-high 27 points in the overtime to lead coach Bill Schofield’s club to a 50-40 victory at Mackenzie Gym.
This was a matchup of two of the region’s younger squads, as the Vikings have only two seniors on their roster while coach Dana Maxim’s Coyotes field just one.
“Both teams made mistakes, [but] fortunately for us we were able to maybe make less or at least capitalize on the ones they made,” said Schofield, whose club improved to 2-0 while Old Town dipped to 1-1.
This was a back-and-forth affair throughout. The biggest lead in regulation was a 23-17 Caribou advantage midway through the third quarter after a fast-break layup by Jamie Martin.
The Coyotes dug down and rallied to tie it at quarter’s end and the teams continued their even play in the final period.
Ashley Abbott’s low-block jumper gave the Coyotes a two-point lead with 2:20 to go, but Caribou scored the next five points, capped by a Brittany Doak free throw with 20 seconds left.
After Doak missed the second end of those free throws, Old Town called timeout before sophomore guard England drained a shot from the left corner to send it to overtime.
But that’s when Selander went to work, giving her team the lead for good with a coast-to-coast layup after rebounding a missed Brooke Cole free throw.
“We realized [after regulation] that we really just had to calm down, slow everything down, play our game [and] not rush,” said Selander, who also had nine boards and five steals.
Selander scored five of her team’s first seven points in overtime to give Caribou a 44-38 lead, and Cole hit a pull-up at the top of the circle to bring her Coyotes back within four.
After a subsequent Caribou turnover, Selander turned the tables on Old Town with a steal and hit two free throws to ice the win.
While Selander sparked the Vikings’ offense, she, Dayna Michaud and Martin harassed Old Town into multiple mistakes with an in-your-face man defense and occasional 2-2-1 zone press.
“That’s what our team strives [for] mostly is to play a tough defensive game, and I think we did a pretty good job this game,” Selander said.
The Coyotes’ offensive inconsistency and inability to develop a fast-break game played right into Caribou’s hands. The Vikings consistently slowed the tempo, and Selander was able to generate easy layups.
“They executed, and defensively we had a lot of breakdowns,” Maxim said. “If you look at that short chart, I bet [Selander] had a lot of layups.”
Both clubs were shaky offensively in the first half, combining for only 10 field goals as the Coyotes led 15-14 at the break.
Abbott, a sophomore, led Old Town with 17 points and nine rebounds while Courtney Treadwell, also a sophomore, contributed nine points off the bench, certainly encouraging signs for Maxim.
“We were down the last couple minutes and the kids fought back hard,” he said. “That was a big shot [by] Ashley England, she’s a player, a good leader and she’s only a sophomore.”
Alexa Massey came off the bench to contribute nine points for Caribou, playing the first of back-to-back road games as the team stayed in the area before heading to Lincoln today to face Mattanawcook Academy.
