Kaleisha Towle said last week wasn’t her favorite week as the South Portland girls’ basketball team lost twice at home.
Towle and the Red Riots had a better time Tuesday night at Keegan Gymnasium as they got back on track, beating host Cheverus, 56-37.
Thanks to a 12-point game from unheralded sophomore Hylah Owen, South Portland shot to a 24-13 lead after one quarter and never looked back.
The Red Riots forced 25 turnovers and put seven players in the scoring column to improve to 9-3.
“We learned some good lessons from (last week) and I think that will help us later down the road,” said Towle, who had eight points, seven rebounds and five steals.
Cheverus got off to a promising start when Lauren Jordan twice drove for layups and a 4-2 lead, but the next 13 points went to South Portland as Ashlee Aceto made a 3-pointer to put the Red Riots on top to stay and Owen made a layup after a steal before draining a 3 for a 15-4 advantage.
“Coach (Lynne Hasson) is always telling me to shoot when I’m open, so I took the open shots and they went in,” said Owen. “I guess I was just feeling it. It was super importantfor us to get off to a fast start.”
Owen added five more points on a runner and another 3-pointer to help South Portland lead by 11 after the first quarter.
The Red Riots held the Stags in check in the second quarter too and with Towle scoring six points, extended the advantage to 37-21 at halftime.
Cheverus turned the ball over on their its five possessions in the second half and never was able to make a run.
“We didn’t handle (South Portland’s) pressure and we didn’t make good decisions,” said Cheverus first-year coach Billy Goodman.
Late baskets from Towle and Aceto gave South Portland a 46-24 lead heading to the fourth quarter; the Stags never got closer than 19 before the Red Riots, who got key contributions from everyone who took the floor, closed it out.
Maggie Whitmore had 12 points and five assists, Aceto had 10 points and Cora Boothby-Akilo impressed off the bench with eight points, six rebounds and five blocks.
“We need to have fun and we can’t worry about losing,” Hasson said. “We need to create offense where people get open shots because we have some very good shooters. A lot of kids can contribute.”
Cheverus (8-4) was led by 11 points from Jillian Lizotte. Hayley Jordan added six points and Maeve Kelly and Madison Storey each had five.
“We’re not ready to play these games yet,” Goodman said. “I’ve got to do a better job coaching. We’ve played really good basketball this year, but a couple of our losses have been really bad. We’ve got to figure it out.”
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