Mt. Ararat junior forward Kayleigh Wagg prepares to hand the ball off to junior guard Jenna Jensen. Cooper Sullivan/The Times Record
TOPSHAM -- It'll be a few weeks until Heal points are final, but after Friday's convincing win over Gray-New Gloucester, the Mt. Ararat girls basketball team is happy with their spot near the top of the Class A South standings.
"When we're having fun, and just playing, and not worrying but (saying) 'OK, we'll get the next one,' and having good energy, everything goes our way," Mt. Ararat senior guard Cali Pomerleau said.
Mt. Ararat and Gray-New Gloucester still hold the region's second and third spots, respectively, as was the case before Mt. Ararat's 49-38 win, but the separation between the two, and everyone else, is becoming clearer.
"I'd say if we keep playing like we just did, we're gonna make it pretty far," Mt. Ararat junior guard Jenna Jensen said.
It took a few minutes for the Eagles to settle down, get into a rhythm and start having fun, but once they did, they put together a complete team effort.
Pomerleau led all scorers with 19 points (10 in the third quarter), as Kennedy Lampert added 10 first-half points off the bench.
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Gray-New Gloucester shot out to a 5-0 lead by taking advantage of Mt. Ararat's man defense and early foul trouble, but a switch to the 1-3-1 zone started to give the Eagles some added possessions and confidence.
"We know the tendencies, what worked against them last time we played them, and we settled into that," Mt. Ararat coach Julie Petrie said. "And that really, I think, got our momentum going."
The switch forced the Patriots (10-3) to settle for outside shots, and allow the Eagles (10-2) to close the gap, taking a 13-12 lead into the second quarter.
That's when the separation began.
In the second quarter, Gray-New Gloucester went 2 of 12 from the field, including 1 of 8 from behind the arc. Mt. Ararat corralled the missed shots and pushed it up the court for Jensen (nine points, six rebounds, two assists) or Pomerleau to sink a 3-pointer of their own. The Eagles went into the break with an eight-point lead.
"We knew they're a bunch of shooters, too, so that's why the zone was kind of iffy at first," Jensen said. "But then they started hucking up a bunch of threes, which weren't going in, so it was working for us."
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The Patriots finished 4 of 23 (17.4%) from deep, while Mt. Ararat finished 7 of 19 (36.8%). Pomerleau, who broke the school's career 3-point record of 87 earlier in the season, made three on Friday. She has 112.
While many of his team's deep shots were open looks, Gray-New Gloucester coach Mike Andreasen said the quick pace of play up and down the court tired his players' legs, so they settled for less-than-full-strength shots.
"With Juliana Allen in the middle, it's tough too, because she alters everything because she's so big, and their collapsing defense is very good," Andreasen said. "If there's a weakness, we haven't exploited it yet. Because you can't beat them outside, and you can't beat them inside, playing close to perfection is really what you need to do."
Along with nine rebounds, a block and a steal, the 6-foot-1 junior Allen added six points and two assists.
"We played really, really hard, I thought, the whole way," Andreasen said. "It just seems (we were) like the Greek mythology figure, Sisyphus, rolling the ball up the hill. Anytime we got the ball a little bit up the hill, well, they pushed it right back down on us. We had to start again."
Sophomore guards Abbey Steele and Emma Hamilton each scored nine points for the Patriots. Senior forward Izzy Morelli and Ella Kenney each scored seven.
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