BANGOR, Maine — The Bangor High School girls basketball team didn’t get off to the start it wanted to in its home opener against Hampden Academy on Tuesday night, trailing 10-2 with 1:32 left in the first quarter.
But the Class AA Rams scored the next 24 points, holding the Broncos scoreless in the second period, and then withstood a second-half rally to earn their first victory after three road losses 47-40 at Red Barry Gym.
Class A Hampden Academy fell to 2-2.
Bangor junior center Katie Butler scored 10 of her 12 points in the second period and also grabbed six of her eight first-half rebounds. Junior guard Megan Conner came off the bench to hand out four assists, including three on baskets by Butler, and she also hit a basket as Bangor built a 23-10 halftime advantage.
Butler fed Conner for a 3-pointer from the corner to open the second half before Brooklynn Scott hit a 12-foot jumper from the left side of the key to end a Bronco scoreless drought that spanned 10:22.
“We definitely came out flat,” said Bangor senior guard/forward Emily Gilmore, who finished with 10 points, three rebounds and two steals. “But I was proud of us for being gritty and coming back. Megan gave us a spark off the bench. The second she came in, we started moving the ball around so much better. That gave us open looks and got us on a run.”
“I always look for other people first before I look to shoot,” said Conner.
“Our defense helped,” said Butler. “That’s something we always focus on. If we do well on defense, our offense will come.
“We also had real good ball movement. Even though we got off to a slow start, we knew we could come back and shoot well and that’s what we did,” she added.
Bangor went 9 for 13 from the floor in the second quarter while HA missed all 12 field goal attempts.
“Our kids played hard for three quarters but that second quarter killed us,” said Hampden Academy coach Tim Scott. “We didn’t play defense in the second quarter. We did a good job on Gilmore, [Sarah] Bragg and Butler in the first quarter but [Butler] had her way in the second quarter. We couldn’t recover.”
“I was happy with how we responded in the second half. We put some pressure on them,” added Scott.
“Shots that usually fall for us didn’t in the second quarter. We didn’t get into a flow. That led to us standing around and not swinging the ball around,” said HA senior captain Courtney Dunton, who had seven points. “But we picked it back up in the second half.”
HA used an 18-11 run to pull within 34-28 early in the fourth quarter behind Scott’s six points.
But Butler fed Jenna Bishop for a layup, Bragg had a steal and layup and Butler hit a free throw to make it 39-28.
Hampden made one more run to cut it to 44-38 with 1:10 to play thanks to poor foul shooting by the Rams but Gilmore hit three free throws down the stretch to sew it up.
Butler wound up with 12 rebounds, Olivia Sharrow had seven points and five rebounds, Bragg had six points and three rebounds and Conner wound up with six assists and five points for Bangor.
Scott’s 13 points and seven rebounds and Melissa Gilpin’s 13 points and seven rebounds led Hampden. Braylee Wildman had five points and five rebounds and Bailey Donovan corralled six rebounds for HA.