OLD TOWN, Maine — The Hermon High School girls basketball team knew coming into Tuesday night’s Class B North showdown with Old Town it had a decided height advantage and the Hawks made the most of it.
Sophomore forward Megan Tracy registered a double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds and the Hawks outrebounded the Coyotes and outscored them from the foul line en route to a 62-53 victory in the battle of unbeatens at MacKenzie Gym.
Hermon (4-0) grabbed a 40-21 rebounding advantage that helped it build a 29-9 edge from the foul line. Tracy went 12 for 15 from the foul line and the Hawks made 29 of 40, compared with Old Town’s 9-for-18 performance.
Hermon senior forward Grace Page posted 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Senior guard Paige Plissey chipped in a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds, and she also racked up five steals and three assists. Maddie Lebel contributed seven points, and Sydney Gallop grabbed six rebounds.
Junior guard Hannah Richards tossed in a game-high 22 points and snared four rebounds for Old Town (3-1). Madelynn Emerson provided eight points, Sydney Loring registered six points and five rebounds, and Claudia Damboise wound up with four points, six rebounds and three steals. Freshman Gabriel Cody added five points.
“We’re a really big and long team and we have long arms. That is really beneficial for our rebounding,” Page said. “We were really pumped up. We were ready for this game. We were all on the same page.”
Old Town coach Heather Richards said her team played well in spurts.
“But we didn’t control the boards very well and we put them on the foul line too much,” she said.
“Megan Tracy had 12 points from the foul line and you can’t defend that. If you put her on the line, you’re going to be in trouble,” Richards added.
Tracy also said after watching Old Town on videotape, they felt they would have an advantage in the paint.
“We made it our goal to really control the boards,” she said.
“I’m usually very hard on myself when it comes to free throws because they can make a big impact,” Tracy said.
Hermon used a 17-3 spurt spanning the first and second periods to turn a 9-4 deficit into a 21-12 lead and the Hawks never looked back.
They eventually extended the advantage to 30-18 with 14 seconds left in the half before Cody’s 3-pointer from the top of the key at the buzzer sliced the deficit to nine at the intermission.
Hermon outrebounded Old Town 23-10 in the first half.
Plissey paced the Hawks over the first 16 minutes with eight points and eight rebounds along with a pair of steals and two assists. Tracy also had eight points and she grabbed six rebounds. Page contributed six points, three rebounds and three assists.
Richards paced Old Town with 10 points and two assists. Damboise had four points, four rebounds and two steals.
The Coyotes were within eight with three minutes left in the third quarter but Plissey fed Page underneath for a basket and Tracy added three free throws to give Hermon a 41-28 cushion after three periods.
The gritty Coyotes kept trying to climb back into the game but couldn’t get any closer than seven as the Hawks kept them at bay with their free-throw shooting.
“For this early in the season, we did some real good things,” Hermon coach Chris Cameron said. “We knew we would have an advantage on the glass with our size and they may have had an advantage in guard play and 3-point shooting. Those were the things we really wanted to try to control and, for the most part, I think we did a great job.”