SOUTH CHINA — Several area teams feature a full-court press. Most of those, however, aren’t blessed with four 6-footers clogging up the lanes.
Medomak Valley forced Erskine Academy into an eye-popping 39 turnovers Thursday night, and the Panthers rolled to a 61-31 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference girls basketball win over the Eagles. Kytana Williamson led three Panthers in double figures with a game-high 21 points — including a 3 of 6 shooting night from beyond the arc.
“If we get it down low, a lot of times teams will collapse,” Williamson said. “Then you’ve got that kick-out and the wing is open. You look for that, and it’s nice.”
But the offense wasn’t what charged Medomak (6-3) on Thursday night. It was a relentless defense that pressured the Eagles (3-4) into all manner of turnovers.
For a team that lost a a full week of practices to the recent winter storm that shut down power at the school and went two full weeks between games, Erskine faced a test Thursday of where it’s at a third of the way into the season.
“We’re a little bit behind and we’re just starting to jell,” said Erskine coach Danielle Lefferts. “We were definitely under-sized in this one. I don’t know what they feed them down there, but they’re super-long and it shows. They got hands on everything and we panicked a little bit. We’re super-young, and it showed tonight.”
The Panthers found their footing early, using a 12-0 first-quarter run for a 22-11 lead through eight minutes. It was more of the same in the second period — though the scoring totals were modest by comparison — as Medomak held the hosts to only six points of their own against 10 turnovers.
Panthers forward Maya Cannon went down with an injury early in the third, but the visitors didn’t let up defensively and Erskine never made a run to get back into the game in the second half.
“You get to run around and you’re kind of free in a way,” Williamson said of Medomak’s defense. “You’re running and you’re jumping, trying to steal the ball any way you can. That’s fun to play.”
Erskine Academy head girls coach Danielle Lefferts during a basketball game against medomak Valley on Thursday in the James V. Nelson Gym at Erskine Academy in South China. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
Sara Nelson added 11 points in the victory, and teammate Audrey Jackson connected for 10 more. As a team Medomak shot an economical 21 of 52 from the floor (40.1%), many of those layups either off transitions or second-chance points through offensive rebounds.
Medomak coach Lindsay Vinal said her team is starting to look like what they envisioned at the start of the season.
“Every game we’re improving,” Vinal said. “Our defense is coming to life and our offense is finally finishing. That’s been difficult for us. We’ll get there, but then we miss our bunnies. We’ve focused on that, and it’s all coming together.”
Most of that stems from the work out of the full-court press the Panthers employ.
“We try to make that our main focus point,” Vinal added. “I’ve got four who are at least 6 feet tall. Our size is (important).”
Kelsie Dunn finished the night with 14 points and six rebounds to lead Erskine in both categories. Oryanna Winchenbach added nine off the bench.
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