Girls basketball: Gardiner edges rival Cony in overtime

Cony’s Cale Barajas, left, has her shot rejected by Gardiner’s Lizzy Gruber during a girls basketball game Tuesday in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — The Gardiner girls basketball team may have been down for much of Tuesday night’s game against rival Cony. But the Tigers were never out.

Down 27-16 at halftime, the Tigers clawed back, eventually tying the Rams and taking a 68-62 victory in overtime.

Gardiner, the No. 1 seed in Class A North, improved to 16-0. No. 3 Cony dropped to 12-3.

“I’m really proud,” Gardiner head coach Mike Gray said. “Cony forced us into situations where it would have been really easy to fold. But we have a lot of juniors and seniors and they’ve seen it all. Down five (points) with a minute-and-a-half left, I’m really proud of the resiliency they showed. They stuck together when things weren’t going well.”

Lizzy Gruber led the Tigers with 28 points and 16 rebounds. Savannah Brown scored 11 points, while Taylor Takatsu added 10 points for Gardiner.

Sage Fortin led Cony with 22 points, while Morgan Cunningham added 20 points. Abby Morrill chipped in with 14 points for the Rams.

Up 10-9 after the first quarter, Cony went on a 12-0 run in the second quarter — with Cunningham adding nine of the 12 points — to lengthen its lead to 27-16 at the half.

“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Cony head coach John Dennett said of his team. “Unfortunately, we only played five deep tonight, with one girl (playing) a couple minutes. But those five girls played with the best intensity I’ve seen all year. They’re an amazing group, they’re very resilient. The ball just didn’t fall our way tonight.”

Gardiner doubled its first half point total in the third quarter alone, outscoring the Rams 16-13 in the period to trail 40-32 in the fourth quarter, despite Gruber and Emilee Brown each spending time on the bench due to foul trouble.

Gruber got back into the game in the fourth quarter and — with three defenders on her — the 6-4 center managed to hit a layup with seconds remaining to tie the game 57-57 and go to overtime.

Savannah Brown nailed a 3-pointer seconds into overtime, and the Tigers never relinquished the lead again.

“I’m proud of the way my girls battled,” Gray said. “They battled, they trusted each other. They kept fighting. Every win is a good win, but this one feels like one we needed.”