For all of the attention the Nokomis boys basketball team has received this season, there is still that team that holds an edge over the Warriors.
Nokomis is 9-1, with that one mark in the loss column coming on Dec. 17, when Brewer took down the Warriors 57-46. Neither team has lost since — Brewer (9-0) hasn’t lost at all — and a rematch is scheduled for Thursday, and while Nokomis coach Earl Anderson said his team isn’t putting too much on this game, he knows many in the state will be watching.
“We’re excited to play every game,” he said. “Obviously, there will be a lot of attention on this game around the area. There’s a lot of interest, I think, in this matchup, and rightfully so.”
Nokomis has been dominant, with wins of 25 or more points in five of the last seven games, but Anderson said Brewer is as formidable a challenge as the Warriors could get.
“They beat us soundly the first time. They completely outplayed us from start to finish,” he said. “They’ve been the best team in the state, I think, so far this season. I don’t think there’s any team any better.”
Anderson said Nokomis has adjustments to make on offense and defense.
“We’ve got to better defending their dribble-drive, dribble-hand off offense,” he said. “Take advantage of our length. I don’t think we did that at all. We do have a length advantage against them and I think they negated it, and negated it early.”
On offense, Anderson said Nokomis needs to do a better job of getting to the free-throw line.
“We never got to the line, at all, and that’s got to change,” he said. “They made way more foul shots than we even shot from the foul line. As a coach, you always say you want to make more foul shots than the other team attempts, and it was just the opposite the first time.”
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The Lawrence girls had their season jolted in December when a car accident resulted in junior and starting guard MaKenzie Nadeau suffering multiple injuries, including a fracture in her back that required surgery. The incident deprived the Bulldogs of one of their key players, and coach Greg Chesley said it was difficult for his team to bounce back from the news.
“We were reeling for a little bit,” he said. “People were emotional, and understandably so, and worried about their teammates and each other. But we’ve kind of gotten through that. We still have MaKenzie on our mind all the time.”
Chesley said the team has started to adjust to Nadeau’s absence on the court. After losing to Skowhegan 70-31 one day after the accident, Lawrence has won four straight games to improve to 8-1.
“New roles have developed for different people, and people are starting to fill those roles,” Chesley said. “We’re moving forward. We’re still taking care of each other, but we’re moving forward and filling the roles we need to fill.”
Lawrence began the week looking forward to the return of talented scorer Hope Bouchard, who suffered a broken finger as a passenger in the crash but who was cleared to return last Thursday.
“It is a big help,” Chesley said of Bouchard’s return. “They’re a very close group. MaKenzie did come to our last game, which was great and very inspiring to have her there. We scored 17 points in the first quarter after getting to see her in the pregame. I don’t know if we’ve ever scored 17 in the first quarter.”
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A shutdown came at a rough time for the Cony girls, who were rolling at 7-2 going into last week. The Rams are back in action now, and coach Adam Rich is hoping they pick up where they left off.
“The break kind of kills momentum a little bit,” said Rich, whose team is on a five-game winning streak. “But we get back and we get the three practices in before we have a game Friday, which will help us get back to a basketball mindset and mode.”
Cony’s Indiya Clark emerges through some Maranacook defenders to look for a shot during a Jan. 4 game in Augusta. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal
Cony has benefitted greatly from the additions of Indiya Clarke and Sage Fortin, the team’s top two scorers, but has also gotten a lift from freshman Abby Morrill, who’s the team’s third-leading scorer and one of its best players on both ends of the floor.
“She’s a very talented player. … She really doesn’t have a lot of those freshman mistakes that you see a lot of freshmen have,” he said. “She’s been getting better and better each week. … She’s a driver. She likes to get to the rim, she gets that mid-range jumper, she can shoot from outside. She moves the ball and sees the floor very well.”
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After a sluggish start, the Richmond girls are finding a rhythm.
The Bobcats started o-2, but have won six straight games. Included in those wins is a 32-25 victory over St. Dominic, which beat Richmond earlier 41-32.
Coach Mike Ladner said the chemistry with the group has started to click, and that players like sophomore forward Izzy Stewart, the team’s leading scorer, and freshman point guard Breonna Dufresne, who’s averaging seven steals a game, have been leading a group that plays 10-deep.
“I’m able to get a lot of kids in and out, and keep them fresh,” Ladner said. “And by being able to do that, we’re able to do a lot of pressing, which has been able to help us. With a lot of steals and deflections and turnovers, it’s easy baskets.”
Ladner said the team needs to get better at closing out those victories.
“That’s part of being a young team,” he said. “We’re still trying to figure out how to play with a lead. That’s going to come with time.”
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Anthony Amero was Forest Hills’s marathon man Saturday.
With girls basketball coach Bob Manix unavailable, Amero, the Tigers’ boys coach, stepped in and coached the girls team for five days leading up to Saturday’s doubleheader at Temple Academy, and then coached them in both games before coaching the boys for the final two games of the day.
One day, four games. Six hours of coaching.
“That’s something I never thought I’d see happen,” Amero said, laughing. “It’s a lot on the brain, you kind of focus for six hours straight. … I’m a guy that loves basketball, so no better way to spend your Saturday.”
Forest Hills coach Anthony Amero coached four games, back-to-back, for both the boys and girls teams Saturday against Temple Academy in Waterville. Kennebec Journal file photo by Joe Phelan
Given Forest Hills’s small size, Amero said it’s common for the boys and girls coaches to sit on each other’s practices, so both are usually familiar with each other’s teams.
Still, Amero gave credit to the Forest Hills girls for adjusting to the change. The Tigers won both games 49-42 and 45-28.
“It was a little bit tough, because we were trying to learn stuff on the fly during the game,” he said. “They gave me everything I asked of them. I’m sure it had to be a little nerve-wracking for them.”
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