DEXTER – If there’s such a thing as the Night-Before-Christmas-Eve jitters, Wally Russell believes his Penquis girls basketball team had them early in Saturday night’s game against Dexter.

Thanks to a third-quarter surge and the Tigers’ shooting woes, the Patriots of Milo emerged from the Class C matchup with a 50-36 victory at Guiski Gymnasium.

“It’s hard to play on Dec. 23, on Christmas Eve-Eve,” said Russell, father of Penquis guard Megan Russell, who led the Patriots with 21 points. “I think the kids on both teams had other things on their minds. We just didn’t play sharply.”

Penquis, now 5-0, held Dexter to 11-of-48 (22.9 percent) shooting in the game. Dexter is now 4-3.

The Patriots’ shooting numbers were a little better – they went 14-for-39 (35.8 percent). Their third-quarter defensive effort made the difference.

Going back and forth between a full-court, man-to-man defense and two different zones, Penquis outscored Dexter 11-2 in the third quarter and limited Dexter to just one early-period field goal, a Kristin Gilbert basket off a pass from Brittany Veazie.

“Their press hurt us. They’re just quicker on defense,” Dexter coach Margaret Veazie said. “No matter what they would have played it would have given us trouble. But we did play with them and I’m happy with that.”

April Allen, the target along with Russell of a Dexter triangle-and-2 defense in the third quarter, finished with 18 points and six rebounds.

The Tigers did open the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run, keyed by a Kristy Veazie 3-pointer, to get within seven points. Gilbert scored on a driving layup and on Dexter’s next possession Gilbert hit an inside shot that drew a foul. She made the free throw to cut the Penquis lead to 35-28.

Foul trouble doomed the Tigers from there. The Patriots went into the bonus with 3:46 left in the game and closed out the game by making 15 of their 18 free-throw attempts.

That was a vast improvement in free throw shooting from early in the game. In the second quarter the Patriots made just two of their nine attempts.

Russell said the drills her father runs in practice where the Patriots try to simulate the feeling of shooting crunch-time free throws has helped in real life this season.

“We work on it in practice, so we’re very good under pressure,” she said.

Dexter’s Gilbert scored a team-high 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Kristy Veazie added nine points, going 3-for-5 from 3-point range.

Russell scored the first seven Penquis points in the game and the Patriots took a 12-5 lead at one point in the first quarter before allowing the Tigers to get back into the game in the second quarter.

Gilbert made two free throws to cut Penquis’ lead to 15-14 with 3:26 left before halftime, but an Allen put-back and a conventional 3-point play from Russell gave the Pats some distance.

Russell said a halftime “motivational speech” from her father helped the Patriots regain their focus.

“We got a holler,” she said with a laugh. “He told us we had to play with more intensity.”

Patriots 50, Tigers 36

Penquis (5-0) Dexter (4-3)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP

Russell 6 13 8 13 21 B. Veazie 2 12 0 0 6

L. Hamlin 2 8 0 0 4 K. Veazie 3 5 0 2 9

L. Gerrish 0 0 0 0 0 Haiko 0 5 1 2 1

Allen 5 10 6 10 18 Hogan 1 5 1 3 3

Morrill 0 0 3 4 3 Nelson 0 6 2 4 2

S. Gerrish 0 0 0 0 0 Belanger 0 0 0 0 0

Madden 0 0 0 0 0 Pullen 0 0 0 0 0

Cail 1 5 1 2 3 Patterson 0 0 0 0 0

Cobb 0 0 0 0 0 L. Turner 0 1 0 0 0

Robinson 0 2 0 0 0 Foster 0 4 0 0 0

J. Hamlin 0 1 1 2 1 Gilbert 5 10 5 8 15

Dolley 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 14 39 19 31 50 Totals 11 48 9 19 36

Penquis 12 24 35 50

Home 8 18 20 36

3-pt. goals: Penquis (3-5): Allen 2-2, Russell 1-2, Cail 0-1; Dexter (5-16): K. Veazie 3-5, B. Veazie 2-7, Hogan 0-1, Nelson 0-1, Haiko 0-2

Attendance: 200 (est.)

Preliminary: Dexter JVs 29-23