Falmouth 44
Gray-New Gloucester 30
The Gray-New Gloucester girls’ basketball team fell in a hole early during their Class B quarterfinal game on Tuesday and nearly crawled their way out of it before Falmouth put them away in the fourth quarter. The Yachtsmen came away with a 44-30 win and will play in the semifinals. Rachel Clement paced the Patriots with nine points and Laura Getchell chipped in with eight.
“I thought we came in and played the game we needed to play,” said Patriots coach Chris Aube. “I thought it was the tempo we needed to play. We lost some shooters in the zone at key times and they forced some turnovers on us when I thought we were getting back into the game.”
Falmouth opened the game with a 6-0 run and didn’t allow a point until Alicia Valente’s layup with 4:02 to play in the quarter. The Patriots fell victim in the first to missed shots and intercepted passes as the Yachtsmen opened up a 13-5 lead.
Gray-New Gloucester got things going a bit in the second. Clement had six of her nine points in the second quarter as the Patriots kept things close. They caused a few turnovers of their own but couldn’t cash in. Falmouth’s Haley Jordan, who led all scorers with 11 points, got a couple of open looks and made some long range jump shots to keep the Patriots at bay. At intermission, Falmouth held a 22-14 advantage.
“At the end of the first half I thought we had a chance to get a tie or even the lead and we didn’t secure some defensive rebounds,” Aube said. “They are the two seed for a reason. They are 16-2. They made us pay for every mistake and that’s why they are moving on.”
The third quarter, however, was a different story. The Patriots were the ones causing the turnovers and scoring baskets in the transition. Chelsey Durgin had a couple big blocks in the paint that kept Falmouth from stretching their lead. Gray-New Gloucester managed to hold the Yachtsmen to just six points in the third while racking up 11 of their own to cut the deficit to three points.
“I think pushing the ball up the court and switching up our defense was what really helped that run,” Durgin said. “I think because we switch up our defense so much. We go from an aggressive defense and switch back to a zone. They can’t think what to run.”
Any thoughts of a Patriots upset were tossed aside early in the fourth. Kelsey Graffam, Paige Wyman and Jordan each hit shots to help Falmouth open the fourth with a 6-0 run. The Patriots were still within striking distance with 3:30 to play. But the Yachtsmen went into stall mode and killed two minutes without taking a shot.
“We had a couple of turnovers,” Aube said of the fourth quarter. “I think we lost Jordan again in the zone and they are a tough team. We needed that tempo and we knew if it got to be two or three possessions it would be tough to play man to man. They killed two minutes when we were trying to get the ball back. But I look at it we played them a month ago, it was 61-18 in their gym.”
Down the stretch, the Yachtsmen pulled away with free throws and coasted to the win. The Patriots finished the regular season with a 10-8 record to earn the number seven seed. They defeated Yarmouth in the preliminary round to reach the quarterfinals.
“I think we grew up this year,” Aube said of his team. “We had a lot of young players without a lot of varsity experience. Expectations were low except in the locker room. They met their expectations and what I like about this group is they came to play they weren’t just happy to be here. I think the future looks good.”
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