The No. 1 ranked Lake Region girls’ basketball team fell at Falmouth, 41-38, on Wednesday, Jan. 24.
The Lakers trailed 25-14 after the first half, but whatever message coach Paul True sent to his team at halftime worked.
“I think some things are to be left inside families,” True said, “but the basic message was I didn’t think we played as hard as we could.”
His players got the message. The Lakers opened the second half on a 14-0 run, forcing multiple Falmouth turnovers and sinking nearly all of their shots to rally and take a 28-25 lead just four minutes into the third quarter.
“Not only is Lake Region the top team, they are the best coached team,” said Falmouth coach George Contant. “I kept trying to guess, what is (True) going to do next. I told my players in the locker room, ‘If you think you are going to see pressure, double it.'”
Falmouth withstood that pressure, eventually recovering as the two teams went into the final quarter tied at 32.
The teams played back-and-forth for much of the fourth period, with Lake Region taking the lead with 2:30 remaining in the game as ZZ Leighton hit Kayla Nowell with a long pass for a layup.
Leighton and Nowell tied for the team-high in points with eight each.
Falmouth regained the lead for good when – with 40 seconds remaining – sophomore Haley Jordan hit a long two-pointer from the baseline. Fellow sophomore Abby Smith later knocked down both ends of a one-and-one to clinch the victory.
The victory moved Falmouth to No. 2 in the most recent Western Maine Class B Heal Point Standings.
“Hopefully live and learn,” True said. “We certainly didn’t match their intensity at the beginning of the game. When you have to exert so much energy getting back into it, sometimes it’s difficult to hold on.
“In the second half the kids played very hard. I am proud of them for fighting their way back into the game.”
Lake Region rebounds with back-to-back wins
Lake Region went on to win at York, 45-42, Friday, and at home against Wells, 56-36, Tuesday. The Lakers were scheduled to play at Gray-New Gloucester Thursday and are back in action Tuesday against Poland.
Windham wins another
The Windham girls’ basketball team notched its most impressive win of the season Tuesday at home against Kennebunk, 60-23.
The point total was the team’s best offensive output of the season, and the 28 points scored by Kennebunk was the fewest allowed by its defense all season.
Ally Noble scored 26 points to lead the way for the Eagles while Rhonda Cole added 17. Both were season highs.
Windham is back in action tonight at home against Bonny Eagle.
The Scotts are trying to recover from their toughest stretch of the season having lost five straight.
Tuesday they came up short at home against Marshwood, 49-46. Lyndie Libby scored a team-high 11 points in defeat.
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