Girls basketball: Lawrence holds off Cony to remain unbeaten

AUGUSTA — The Lawrence girls basketball team certainly hopes to see a lot more of the Maddie Provost the Bulldogs saw Wednesday evening.

Provost scored 27 points in a 63-60 win over Cony at the Capital City Hoop Classic, none more important than the five she netted in the final two minutes to erase a brief Ram lead and ensure Lawrence would remain unbeaten.

Provost’s pull-up jumper with 1:49 remaining handed the Bulldogs (4-0) a 59-58 lead, and then her triple just under a minute later extended the lead to four with 57 seconds left on the clock.

“We had to try to move Maddie around a little bit against that defense,” Lawrence coach Greg Chesley said. “If she’s right at the top, there’s not a lot she can do against that defense. We moved her around a little bit to try and get her some more open looks, and we made enough of them.”

“It’s just taking open shots and getting my teammates involved. That’s what it’s all about,” Provost said. “We came in wanting to win, and we ended up pulling it out, so that was good.”

Cony (2-3) led by four after the first quarter, but Lawrence got its game going in the second quarter. After a quiet start, the Bulldogs scored 30 points in the second period off 11 for 22 shooting from the floor to head into halftime with a 41-28 lead.

“We were cold in the beginning and missing some shots hurt our energy a little bit,” Chesley said. “That second quarter was really how we need to play.”

Credit the Rams in the third quarter, as their 1-3-1 zone defense forced Lawrence into turnovers and another poor shooting stanza. That allowed Cony to pluck away at its deficit and close to within four through 24 minutes at 51-47.

Abby Morrill, who led Cony with 27 points of her own to match Provost, had eight in the third.

Lawrence’s Madalyn Provost makes a pass against Cony at the Capital City Hoop Classic on Wednesday at the Augusta Civic Center. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

But foul trouble to its bigs didn’t slow Lawrence in the fourth, and Cony — which had been ferocious defensively and fought to stay in the rebound battle despite being undersized — couldn’t match the Bulldogs in the final minutes.

Morrill’s three-pointer and layup handed the Rams a 56-55 lead with 4:13 remaining, but Cony scored just four points the rest of the way.

Field goals from Morgan Fichthorn and Morrill got the Rams to within two points with 45 seconds left, but the defensive efficiency early in the period caught up to them. Having committed only two fouls in the fourth quarter, Cony couldn’t foul late to send Lawrence to the line and get the ball back quickly.

By the time they finally got the Bulldogs into the bonus, with 4.9 seconds to play, a single free throw from Kaylee Elkins (12 points) made it 63-60.

“We got momentum during certain spots in the game, but we never hit that specific stride that we really wanted to,” Provost said. “We hadn’t played competitive teams until tonight, and Cony was definitely a good test for us. I’m just happy we pulled out the win.”

Morgan Cunningham’s hurried three-point attempt for Cony as time expired failed to force overtime.

Lily Gray hauled down a game-high 14 rebounds and finished one point shy of a double-double with nine for the Bulldogs. Nadia Morrison added six points and 12 rebounds.

For Cony, Maci Freeman scored 14 points in the loss.