OAKLAND — On opening night, the defending Class A state champion Lawrence High School girls basketball team did its best to erase any doubt as to who is the team to beat in the North region.
Boston University-bound Nia Irving scored 28 points and grabbed 19 rebounds, and guard Domi Lewis added 17 points to lead the Bulldogs to a 67-43 win at Messalonskee High School.
“That’s a great team we just beat. They’re going to win a lot of games,” Irving said. “It was an important win for us, and I’m just glad we really came together as a team. It was a complete team effort.”
Ahead 28-17 at the half, Lawrence scored the first eight points of the third quarter to pull away. The Eagles were able to chip away and cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 15 points, 54-39, midway through the fourth quarter, but Messalonskee could get no closer.
“They’re just a complete team. When you have Nia and Dom playing that well and everyone else playing alongside them, it’s really tough,” Messalonskee coach Keith Derosby said.
Lawrence is a tough matchup for any defense, and it showed why on Friday night. The Eagles double and triple-teamed Irving in the post throughout the game, leaving Lewis and the Bulldogs’ other perimeter shooters open shots. Lawrence made three 3-pointers in the third quarter, which helped the Bulldogs pull away. Lewis made three 3-pointers on the game, while Camryn Caldwell sank a pair and Morgan Boudreau one.
“We wanted to get the ball inside out,” Lawrence coach John Donato said.
Often, the Eagles were simply overmatched.
“You can scheme anything you want. We felt like we knew what we wanted to do against them. We know what their tendencies are. But knowing and doing are a whole different thing,” Derosby said.
Defensively, Lawrence did a good job guarding Sophie Holmes, Messalonskee’s best shooter, particularly in the first half. Holmes finished with a team-high 18 points, including four 3-pointers, and was held to six points in the first half. Ally Turner had 12 points for the Eagles, eight coming in the first half.
“We know we have to get out on their shooters. Sophie makes a lot of threes, she’s a very good shooter. Ally Turner has a lot of good drives, and they have other key players you don’t really expect who can hit threes,” Irving said.
Lawrence took the lead for good with 6:10 left in the first quarter on an Irving layup. A 9-0 Lawrence run capped by a Caldwell three pushed the Bulldogs lead to 20-11 early in the second quarter.
“It was a good team we beat. It’s nice to play fairly well on the road,” Donato said.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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