YORK — One drawback to winning a state championship is the team often is led by seniors, and the next season’s roster is dominated by inexperienced players.
That’s what the York girls’ basketball team has had to overcome this season.
The Wildcats stumbled to an 0-3 record but have turned it around, winning nine of their last 10 games. The latest victory came Wednesday night, a 38-28 victory against Marshwood.
The result showed York’s improvement. The Wildcats lost 45-43 to the Hawks in the third game of the season.
“The difference (from the start of the season) is primarily confidence and the fact that these girls now know how to play together,” said York Coach Steve Freeman, who was competing against his son, also named Steve Freeman, who coaches the Hawks.
“It took the first three or four games to get on the same page but they are now.”
The Wildcats (10-4) held the Hawks (11-2) to 28 points, nine in the first half.
“(York) has new kids forced into new roles after the loss of the studs that they had on the team last year,” said Marshwood’s Coach Freeman. “I figured they would. So (their turnaround) doesn’t surprise me one bit.”
York didn’t take its first lead until 33 seconds remained in the first quarter on Maddie Cogger’s layup off Sophie Remick’s pass from the top of the key.
The Wildcats held the lead for the rest of the game. But their 15-9 halftime cushion was quickly cut to two points when Natalie Herbold (team-high nine points and six steals) of Marshwood hit two shots in an eight-second span. The second came off her steal at halfcourt for an uncontested layup.
The Wildcats built the lead back to five points before Herbold converted a three-point play to make the score 20-18 with 3:09 remaining in the third quarter.
A 3-pointer by Reilly Smedley (game highs with 14 points and nine rebounds) off an inbounds pass by Cogger (six assists) with 1:38 left in the quarter pushed the York advantage to 23-18.
The lead never went below five points the rest of the way.
“The timing couldn’t have been better for that 3,” said York’s Freeman. “At one point we said we are not shooting 3s anymore because we weren’t hitting any tonight. Then (Reilly) steps back and she hits one. It is nice when (the players) have that confidence.”
Smedley said that with a young team it was going to take time to get on the same page.
“This year we have a lot of young players coming up and a lot different people joining the team, so it took awhile for us to bond and to get that chemistry back that we had (last year),” said Smedley, who recorded 11 of her 14 points in the second half.
“Now we’re starting to get the hang of things. We had a nine-game winning streak (broken Jan. 20 against Greely), so our confidence is building and we are starting to make things work.”
Remick added seven points for York.
Elora Montgomery had eight points and four rebounds, and Celine Lawrence added seven points and six rebounds for Marshwood.
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