With 36 seconds remaining in the Class A girls’ basketball state championship game, Jaycie Christopher and Maddy Morris stood alone at the far end of the court. Skowhegan High led Greely by 10 points and Greely’s reserves were about to enter the game.
Christopher and Morris embraced as the substitutes came in. “She is the one who kept saying all year we could win this,” Christopher said of Morris. “I told her, ‘We’re about to make history.'”
History, indeed. The River Hawks completed an undefeated season Saturday afternoon, defeating Greely 60-46 to win the school’s first girls’ basketball championship. Christopher was her usual terrific self, with 24 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocked shots.
“This means everything,” said Christopher, who will next play at Boston University. “I can’t even describe it. It’s been a dream since I was a little kid. To having it actually happen, with this group, it’s just a really special feeling.”
But this was a team effort by Skowhegan. Callaway LePage, who rolled an ankle in practice on Wednesday, scored 17 points to go with nine rebounds and four assists. The Hawks committed only five turnovers – the first coming with 3:26 left in the third quarter – and dominated the offensive boards, grabbing 17 to just four for Greely. And when starter Annabelle Morris suffered a sprained ankle just 6:17 into the game, Aryana Lewis stepped in and scored 12 points.
“We talked about it all year,” said Skowhegan Coach Mike LeBlanc. “We told them it takes everyone. You never know when you’re going to get pushed into the limelight.”
Christopher said the River Hawks pushed each other in practice every day. “That’s what it’s all about, making each other better so we can have moments like this,” she said.
Skowhegan, which lost in two previous state finals, finished the season 22-0. Greely finished 16-5.
The Rangers got a masterpiece performance from senior guard Chelsea Graiver, who scored 32 points, including 23 of Greely’s 25 points in the second half.
“That’s a really good team, a championship-quality team,” said Greely Coach Todd Flaherty, who coached state champions in 2018 and 2019. “Long rebounds. They were beating us to those. We weren’t doing a good enough job checking out far away from the basket and then they converted second opportunities. And we couldn’t fight back.”
“I knew the way we were going to win the game was crash the offensive boards,” said LePage. “And get second shots. And on the defensive end, not let them get second or third looks at the boards.”
Skowhegan High’s Jaycie Christopher maneuvers around Greely’s Asia Kelman during the Class A girls’ basketball state championship game Saturday at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. Christopher scored 24 points in the River Hawks’ 60-46 victory. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald
The River Hawks took the lead late in the first quarter, going ahead 11-9 on a basket by Lewis, and never trailed again.
With 4:00 left in the half, it was still a close game at 22-19 after Greely’s Kaiyla Delisle hit two foul shots. Skowhegan then went on an 8-0 run, started by a Christopher 3-pointer and ending with a foul-line pull-up jumper by Christopher for a 30-19 lead. It was 30-21 at the half.
Then the River Hawks got offensive rebound baskets by LePage and Lewis to open the third quarter.
Graiver tried to keep the Rangers close. Her final 3-pointer brought Greely within 54-46 with 1:05 left.
But Christopher and LePage went 6 for 6 at the foul line in the final 1:01 to seal the championship. In the fourth quarter, the duo combined to make 12 of 14 foul shots.
“This is absolutely amazing,” said LePage. “I wouldn’t want to have it any other way.”
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