KENNEBUNK — The Kennebunk girls basketball team put together an impressive fourth quarter as the Rams pulled away for a 48-35 win over visiting Biddeford on Tuesday afternoon.
“I was very proud of them,” said Kennebunk coach Rob Sullivan. “We’ve had some fourth quarters as of late where we’ve been behind a few points and kind of chasing. It was nice to see us take advantage of a small lead, and extend that lead and make those last two minutes where we were in total control.”
The Rams used a strong zone defense to shut down the Tigers and finished the game on a 13-4 run to break open a 35-31 game.
“They switched to a zone and we just didn’t move well. We did a lot of standing around,” said Biddeford coach Katie Herbine. “We didn’t do a good job of getting it to the spots that are open in the zone, but credit to them. They were playing in that zone where they were big out top so it looked like nothing was open. They did a great job in the zone, rebounded out of it when we missed shots and then they went.”
Biddeford senior Gracie Martin went off for a game-high 31 points, but the Rams’ fourth-quarter zone defense held the Harvard-bound standout to just four points.
“We just really had to keep our energy up, close down Grace, and just keeping getting the boards and offensively pick it up,” said Kennebunk standout Emily Archibald, who led the Rams with 17 points.
Sullivan was impressed with Martin, who scored all but four of Biddeford’s points on Tuesday.
“There were shots she made where I thought we made mistakes and then there were an awful lot of shots where I thought we played great (defense) and she still made it,” said Sullivan.
Archibald always enjoys the challenge of playing Martin.
“She’s a phenomenal player and it’s just fun to play against her,” said Archibald.
Herbine knows that her team needs to find other scoring options if they are going to succeed against the state’s stronger teams.
“When we play well it’s when we have four, five, six people in the box score. We didn’t have that tonight,” Herbine said.
The Rams would use a balanced scoring attack in the win as both Jess Dupler and Alaina Schatzabel finished with nine points and Emily Hogue added seven.
Dupler scored all of her points on threes and Schatzabel also nailed a trey — with Archibald setting up most of those shots by drawing in the Biddeford defense.
“Emily does a lot for us. She wants to affect all parts of the game. All we talk about is we want to get a touch in there, we want to get it to Em,” said Sullivan. “She’s such a good passer and she’s going to draw attention. She makes good decisions when she has it and an awful lot of times when we make threes it’s coming back out from her.”
Archibald is happy to feed her teammates and give them a shot.
“That’s awesome because when they collapse in, they’re open and they make the three,” said Archibald, who will lead the Rams (9-6) into Westbrook on Thursday for another Class A South contest.
Biddeford will look to secure a Class A South playoff spot over the next two weeks. The Tigers currently hold the last spot in the nine-team field, but will most likely need another win to clinch a trip to the postseason.
“Going into any playoff game, whether it’s the prelim or quarterfinals, you want to feel like you’re a little bit on a roll. We definitely need to win one, I’d like to get two and then we move forward from there … we’ve got to keep working,” said Herbine.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 780-9017. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.

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