BREWER, Maine —- The youthful Hampden Academy girls basketball team, with four freshman starters, squandered a 12-0 lead but rallied from a five-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat Brewer 35-30 in a mutual season-opener at the Brewer High Gym Friday night.
Two of the Bronco freshmen, forward Sophie Narofsky and guard Marissa Gilpin, combined for nine fourth-quarter points as the Broncos outscored Brewer 13-3.
Hampden Academy did a nice job pressuring the ball in that final quarter as the Witches missed all eight of their field goal attempts.
HA’s Braylee Wildman opened the fourth quarter with a nifty spin move and a six-foot jumper off a Brooklynn Scott feed and Narofsky scored off a Scott inbounds pass to cut the lead to 27-26.
After two free throws by Brewer’s Chelsea Frederick with 5:55 left, the Broncos closed out the game with a 9-1 run.
Narofsky hit a free throw with 4:30 remaining, Daija Misler passed to Gilpin for a four-foot baseline jumper and Misler put the Broncos ahead to stay with a free throw.
Gilpin’s free throw made it 31-29 but Courtney Pearson hit one to slice the lead to one with 2:39 left.
Gilpin sank another free throw with 2:35 left and rebounded her missed second free throw.
Between turnovers and missed shots, the score remained 32-30 until Narofsky grabbed a defensive rebound and was fouled with 28.9 seconds left. She made one of two free throws.
Brewer had a couple of possessions to tie it up but Scott blocked Meg Davis’ 3-point attempt with 1.7 seconds left and Narofsky sank a pair of free throws to sew it up.
“I just stuck my hand out and hoped for the best,” Scott said. “I knew [Davis and Pearson] were their best shooters. I knew if she shot it, it would probably go in. But I didn’t want to foul her because she would have made the foul shots.”
Gilpin finished with 10 points and four rebounds and Scott also had 10 points along with four rebounds, four steals and three assists. Narofsky wound up with eight points, seven rebounds and three steals. Wildman had four points. Erin Murphy had four rebounds and three assists.
Narofsky admitted she was nervous when she stepped to the foul line.
“I had to concentrate and tune out the fans,” she said. “They get to me sometimes.”
Davis paced Brewer with 12 points, four rebounds and three steals. Freshman Emily Lord came off the bench and had six points and four steals, while Pearson and Frederick added four points each and Mallory Bubier had eight rebounds and two steals.
Brewer started two juniors, two sophomores and one senior.
Scott had five points during Hampden’s game-opening 12-0 run but Brewer answered with the next 11 points with Davis scoring five points and adding an assist during the run.
Brewer erased a 20-13 deficit in the third quarter with a 14-2 rally featuring six points by Lord and five by Davis.
Both teams forced a ton of turnovers with their pressure defenses.
“It was a lot of fun,” Hampden coach Tim Scott said. “You had a couple of really young teams and both played hard. I knew it was going to be a close game. We were fortunate to make a couple of shots down the end to come out on top.”
“We handled their pressure better in the fourth quarter,” Brooklynn Scott, the coach’s daughter, said. “We calmed down, made good passes and pushed the ball.”
Brewer coach Chris Horr said his girls “played their hearts out. We were patient offensively in the fourth quarter, I liked how we moved the ball but we just couldn’t get it to go in.”
Hampden outrebounded Brewer 35-24.
The Broncos went 11-for-38 from the floor while Brewer went 9-for-44.