GARDINER — An ugly game gave way to a pretty finish for the Gardiner girls basketball team.
Megan Gallagher hit seven 3-pointers on her way to 24 points, Lizzy Gruber added 19 and 17 rebounds, and the Tigers bounced back from a sluggish first half to beat Cony 55-37.
Gruber added five blocks to her totals for Gardiner (12-1), which trailed 26-22 at halftime before picking up the pace in the second half.
“We started strong, the first four minutes were great, but then we went cold, we started getting frustrated with ourselves,” Tigers coach Mike Gray said. “It was just frustration. The whole second quarter felt like we weren’t relaxed, we weren’t playing our game, we were just frustrated with everything. I’m really proud of the way they battled back in the second half.”
Gardiner allowed only 11 points in the second half, and just one in the fourth quarter as it built on a 42-36 lead.
“We just came out and we talked over and over again about how it has to be defense first,” Gray said. “Everything’s got to be about defense. The offense will take care of itself.”
Gardiner’s Savannah Brown defends Cony’s Sierra Prebit during a Class A North basketball game Tuesday in Gardiner. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal
Indiya Clarke scored 17 points and Alyssa Redman had eight for the Rams (10-4).
“The second quarter was when we really turned it on, our press kind of gave them fits a little bit,” Cony coach Adam Rich said. “We were hitting shots, and then once the shots stopped falling in the second half, we kind of slowed down a bit.”
Cony scored 23 points in the second quarter to take the lead after a slow start, but Gallagher scored 10 points in the period to keep the Tigers in range.
“It felt good,” said Gallagher, a junior. “I’ve been in sort of a slump the past couple of games. … My teammates have just had my back in practice. They told me ‘We have your back, we’ll find you,’ and I started to hit them.”
Gallagher kept up her hot shooting in the second half, and Gruber began to take over inside. She scored 13 of her points and grabbed 10 of her rebounds after the break.
“We really brought it together at halftime,” Gruber said. “Once one thing starts going well, everything snowballs and things just start to work for us. I think what really helped was positivity and working together. That one extra pass, one less dribble, it all adds up.”
Cony took the lead for the final time at 34-33 on a Clarke 3-pointer, her fourth, with 3:35 left in the third quarter. The Rams scored only three points over the final 11:35, and suffered a blow when starting guard Sage Fortin went down with an ankle injury with 2:44 to play.
“It looks like a sprain right now,” said Rich, whose team was already without freshman Abby Morrill and sophomore Cale Barajas. “It’s a tough kid to lose. … The injury bug’s hit us. Hopefully it’s just a sprain, it’s nothing too serious, but time will tell.”
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