Girls basketball: Skowhegan pulls away from Gardiner for much-needed win

GARDINER — The first minute didn’t go the way the Skowhegan girls basketball team planned Friday night.

Fortunately for the River Hawks, everything the rest of the way did — and the result was a 56-35 victory over Gardiner that snapped a three-game losing streak.

“We need every win we can get, but coming off those losses, we especially needed this one,” said Skowhegan head coach Mike LeBlanc. “Defensively, we came in knowing who their shooters were and that we had to close out on them. We played with a lot of intensity.”

Annabelle Morris had 20 points and seven rebounds for Skowhegan, which got 16 points and five rebounds from Allie Frey (four 3-pointers). The River Hawks held Gardiner to a single basket over a 20-minute stretch from the first quarter to the third after the Tigers scored two baskets in the first 58 seconds.

Gardiner’s Emilee Brown drives by Skowhegan’s Annabelle Morris (22) during a girls basketball game Friday in Gardiner. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Gardiner started out hot in the opening minute, getting layups from Taylor Takatsu and Lydia Gero to go in front. Yet Skowhegan (6-6) would hold the Tigers without a basket the rest of the quarter, and with Frey contributing two 3-pointers and a layup at the other end, the River Hawks led 15-6 after one.

Skowhegan then stretched its lead to double digits at 21-9 as Natalie Cooke made back-to-back layups early in the second quarter. Gardiner (4-8) answered with an and-one from Takatsu, but the Tigers wouldn’t score again in the period as the River Hawks rode stout defense to a 30-12 edge at the break.

“(Skowhegan) did a really good job of congesting the middle; knowing we had Taylor and Megan (Carver), they did a really good job of congesting the inside so we couldn’t get the ball inside,” said Gardiner head coach Britney Gero. “We were struggling and doing a lot of side-to-side dribbling that wasn’t getting us anywhere.”

After Skowhegan took its largest lead of the game at 37-15 midway through the third quarter, Gardiner finally got another basket on a layup from Carver. Then, after a Morris layup put the River Hawks back up 22, two layups from Lily Staples and back-to-back 3-pointers from Abbie Bailey saw the Tigers end the third on a 10-0 run.

That, though, would be the closest Gardiner would get. Two free throws from Annabelle Morris and a 3-pointer from Maddy Morris put Skowhegan up 44-27 with six and a half to play. Then, with the River Hawks leading by 16 twice, Annabelle Morris drained a pair of triples that put the game beyond doubt.

“Teams want to play zone against us, but if we make a couple shots, they’re not going to be able to,” LeBlanc said. “We made a few early ones, and it makes it tough on teams when you can go out and make some of those early shots. Those (big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter), that certainly helped, too.”

Nobody could really get going offensively for Gardiner as Bailey finished with a team-high six points on the 3-pointers late in the third quarter. On the other end of the floor, Coach Gero noted that Skowhegan’s speed in transition made a big difference in the outcome.

“We’ve got to get faster defensively, and I’ve got a lot of things going on in my head to figure out how to do that,” Gero said. “That’s where it’s got to start for us, and we’ve got to do that and trust each other offensively.”