BANGOR — Lewiston High School girls basketball coach Lynn Girouard and her Blue Devils knew that the Bangor High School Rams were inexperienced at the guard position and were prone to turnovers.
So the Blue Devils used full-court pressure to force 29 turnovers and they outscored Bangor 12-4 to close out the game and register a 54-42 victory at Red Barry Gymnasium on Tuesday evening.
Lewiston evened its record at 1-1 while Bangor fell to 0-2.
Senior forward Morgan Eliasen scored nine of her 13 points in the fourth quarter and also had a steal and ensuing pass to Hannah Chaput for a layup that sewed up the win.
Eliasen also had six rebounds including five in the second half to help overcome the loss of 6-foot center Victoria Harris, who picked up her fourth foul with 3:24 left in the third period.
“I definitely felt I had to step up. It’s always hard when Victoria is in foul trouble because she is an impact player,” said Eliasen. “But we have a pretty deep team so if I’m not able to step up, someone else will step up and get it done.”
Senior guard Skylar Gaudette also had 13 points and four assists and freshman guard Chaput contributed 11 points, four rebounds and two assists. Harris had seven points and eight rebounds despite limited playing time. Gabby Wilson grabbed six rebounds and had two assists and two blocked shots.
Senior guard Sammi Thayer had a team-high nine points for Bangor and she also dished out two assists. Senior center Katie Butler had eight points and eight rebounds and freshman guard Rowan Andrews chipped in with seven points, six rebounds and two assists. Seniors Megan Conner and Emma Payne each had six points and Conner had three assists.
Kira Yardley had five rebounds and for the Rams.
“Twenty-nine turnovers is pretty good,” said Eliasen. “We’ve been working on our defense a lot in practice … talking and getting to passes. Coach told us to pressure their guards really hard and see what we could get.”
“Our defensive pressure was definitely the key,” said Girouard. “We just tried to keep the ball out of the hands of their guards and our guards were able to do that tonight.”
Bangor coach Joe Johnson agreed.
“Just too many turnovers,” said Johnson. “We didn’t handle their pressure very well. They got some easy baskets and that was the difference in the game. We weren’t getting the ball into the right spot at the right time.”
Lewiston forced 17 turnovers in the first half and took a 24-17 lead into the intermission.
Gaudette had eight first-half points and Harris had seven.
But the Rams came out firing in the second half and rattled off a 13-3 run to take a 30-27 lead. The Rams protected the ball much better and received five points from Thayer during the run.
Conner had a three-pointer and two assists during the flurry.
But Chaput keyed a 10-3 spurt to close out the third quarter with eight points, including a pair of three-pointers and a layup off her own steal. That gave the Blue Devils a 37-33 lead and they led by at least four the rest of the way.
“We love our freshmen,” grinned Eliasen.
Conner fed Thayer for a three-pointer to pull Bangor within 42-38 with 3:59 remaining but Lewiston scored the next six points.
Gaudette fed Dacia Bail for a basket and Bangor turned the ball over. Wilson missed a pair of free throws but Chaput tracked down an offensive rebound. Gaudette found Eliasen with an inbounds pass and Eliasen converted with a short jumper before Bail capped the flurry with a six-foot baseline jumper after Wilson had grabbed an offensive rebound.
“We settled in after the half but then we got wound up again and got caught up in the pace of the game,” said Bangor’s Butler in explaining the seven fourth-quarter turnovers.
JV: Lewiston 38-26