AUGUSTA — Coach John Dennett sensed early something special was about to happen for the Cony girls basketball team. 

The Rams were still in the early stages of what would be a 70-57 victory over Skowhegan in a key Class A North matchup Friday. The way they were shooting from 3-point range, though, was enough for Dennett to give the entire team the green light.

“After the first couple, I was telling everyone, ‘If you’re open, shoot it,’” said Dennett, Cony’s second-year head coach. “We play six girls, and they can all shoot it. Tonight, they all chipped in, and it went really well.”

It certainly did for a Cony team that made 12 3-pointers, 10 of which came in the first half. The Rams got four triples from Morgan Cunningham, three from Cassie Lacroix, two each from Cale Barajas and Morgan Fichthorn and one from Abby Morrill in the win.

Cunningham sank the first 3-pointer of the game for Cony (6-4) with 7:10 to play in the first quarter, putting the Rams ahead 3-2 and giving them a lead they’d retain for good. Two triples from Lacroix and another from Cunningham with a minute left in the period gave the Rams a 22-15 advantage through one.

“We were definitely pretty comfortable,” Cunningham said of Cony’s shooting prowess Friday. “We got out there and started shooting right away, and they kept falling, so we kept shooting. We had a lot of confidence.”

The Rams, as it turned out, were just getting started.

Cony reacts during a play against Skowhegan during a girls basketball game Friday in Augusta. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Back-to-back 3-pointers from Cunningham and Barajas gave the home team a 28-15 lead with six and a half minutes to play in the half, and another triple from Fichthorn capped off a 16-0 Cony run that made it 32-15. Lacroix, Morrill and Barajas also converted from beyond the arc as the Rams led 43-22 at the break.

Cunningham and Fichthorn hit from long range again early in the second half, after which Cony’s 3-point barrage stopped with a 24-point lead in hand. Skowhegan (5-5) fought back with a 24-point fourth quarter, and although the game was already in hand by then, Dennett took note of the River Hawks’ late surge.

“As it turned out, we needed that (early 3-point success) as the game moved along,” Dennett said. “We played a really good first half, and the third quarter went OK, but in that fourth quarter, Skowhegan outplayed us. It’s a good thing we had that lead because they fought hard. They’re a good team.”

Fichthorn led Cony with 21 points, and the Rams also got 19 points from Cunningham, 11 points and seven rebounds from Morrill and eight points and seven boards from Barajas. Annabelle Morris had 21 points and nine rebounds for Skowhegan, which also got seven points and 11 rebounds from Allie Frey.

After returning the bulk of a roster that went 15-5 a year ago, four losses at the midway point in the season wasn’t necessarily the start for which Cony had hoped this winter. This win, then, was a needed one for a Rams team that was fresh off a disappointing loss Wednesday against Spruce Mountain.

“I’d say this felt really good,” said Fichthorn, a transfer from Winthrop who was a first-team All-Mountain Valley Conference selection last year. “After the last game at Spruce Mountain, we were definitely really down, but I think we just really wanted to win this game, and we got it done.”

This shooting performance, Cunningham, Fichthorn and Dennett agreed, was unlike anything Cony has shown all season. Although the Rams’ emphasis on shooting at practice hadn’t reaped the dividends Dennett wanted to see for much of the year, it did Friday — and now, he’s hoping it can be a springboard 

“I learned from (former Cony head coach Paul) Vachon a long time ago to put as many shots up in practice as you possibly can, so we shoot generally about 150 shots apiece per player per practice,” Dennett said. “It just hasn’t paid off for us, but it did tonight, and hopefully, it’ll get us going.”

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