Defense, rebounds lift ‘Cats Presque Isle topples Brewer in opener

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BREWER – Defense and rebounding. When you’re executing those areas of basketball well enough, you can get away with a lousy shooting game.

The Presque Isle girls had just one of those games Saturday afternoon as they shot 27.5 percent from the field. In spite of that, the Wildcats pulled out a 57-51 victory over Brewer in each team’s season-opener because they played solid defense and dominated the boards.

“They played awful tough. For awhile, it felt like they were making every shot they took and we couldn’t even make a layup,” said coach Jeff Hudson, whose Wildcats outrebounded Brewer 45-35 and forced 26 turnovers with their man-to-man and press defenses.

The teams played the first quarter evenly before the Wildcats seized momentum with a 10-0 run in the second quarter to take a 20-9 lead. Brewer had an answer as Amy Freeman’s shooting hand warmed up and the sophomore guard hit two 3-pointers and scored 10 points in a 12-0 Brewer run which helped tie it up at halftime.

Carolyn McAvoy (13 points, six rebounds) scored the first three hoops of the second half to give Brewer a 29-23 lead, but Melissa Demerchant came alive for PI with five points in a two-minute span as the Wildcats scored nine of the next 13 points. Back-to-back 3s by Freeman and Rachel Wing pushed Brewer’s lead to six four seconds into the fourth quarter, but PI scored the next eight points to take a 43-41 lead. Three lead changes and 19 foul shots later, the ‘Cats retook the lead for good – 52-51 with 1:14 to play.

Brewer missed its last five shots from the floor and had to foul the Wildcats, who made 5 of 8 in the final 88 seconds to cap the comeback.

Billie Blanchard (12 points, nine rebounds), Demerchant (10 points, 13 rebounds), Autumn Tuttle (12 points, eight boards) and freshman guard Natasha Deschene (13 points) all turned in solid efforts for Presque Isle.

“Well-balanced scoring and working the ball around the perimeter were key, plus playing as a team,” said Blanchard. “We really pulled together at the end.”

Freeman led Brewer with 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists while Stacie Bean had 10 points and seven assists. Freshman forward Christie Chapman had eight rebounds.

“A couple times we didn’t execute like we wanted,” said Brewer coach Mark Savage. “The little things hurt us like turnovers and mistakes, but when you start a sophomore and freshman, you’re going to have growing pains.”

WILDCATS 57, WITCHES 51

Presque Isle girls (1-0) Brewer (0-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Deschene 5 12 0 0 13 Bean 2 8 10

Delong 0 1 0 0 0 Freeman 5 15 15

McKenna 2 6 0 2 4 Hamm 0 0 0

Post 0 0 0 0 0 McLaughlin 0 1 0

Condon 2 7 0 0 4 Wing 3 7 7

Demerchant 3 17 4 6 10 McAvoy 6 12 13

McHatten 1 5 0 0 2 Armstrong 0 0

Blanchard 3 14 6 12 12 Chapman 1 3 4

Tuttle 3 7 6 10 12 Alberding 0 0

Michaud 0 1 2 2

Totals 19 69 16 30 57 17 48 13 21 51

Presque Isle 14 23 35 57

Brewer 9 23 38 51

3-pt. goals: Presque Isle (3-5): Deschene 3-3, Blanchard 0-2; Brewer (4-11): Freeman 3-8, Wing 1-2, Bean 0-1

Attendance: 350 (est.)

Preliminary: Presque Isle JV 45-29