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BELFAST – For a few minutes of Thursday’s Eastern Maine Class B girls basketball game, the Belfast Lions came out of their usual style. In fact, the half-court-oriented Lions looked a bit more like their fast-breaking, quick-shooting opponents from Camden Hills.
That momentary change did Belfast good. A swing in momentum provided by sisters Katelyn and Jillian Ross, along with tough fourth-quarter defense, helped boost the Lions to a 40-32 victory over the Windjammers in a key Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference matchup at the high school gym.
The win helped Belfast, now 13-3, avenge an early-season overtime loss to Camden Hills. In fact, the Belfast seniors had never before beaten the Windjammers in varsity games, and no one could remember the last time a Belfast varsity team had beaten a Windjammer squad.
“It was a huge game,” said Belfast senior forward Kate Bailey, who finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. “We were ready for this. We came into this one pumped. We needed to come out better because we had a terrible first half in the last game.”
Camden Hills (11-5) had a slim edge in a defense-heavy first half and maintained that until midway through the third quarter when Bailey converted a 3-point play to cut the ‘Jammer lead to 13-12. Camden Hills was clinging to a 17-16 lead when the Ross sisters hooked up to give the Lions a spark.
Senior Katelyn Ross knocked down a huge 3-pointer from the right wing to make it 19-17. Then, she engineered a steal just ahead of the half-court line and ran it back for an easy, wide-open layup. The shot didn’t go, but freshman Jillian Ross was trailing her sister. The young Ross grabbed the offensive rebound, put back the basket, and was fouled in the process. She made the free throw for a 22-17 Belfast lead.
Camden Hills’ Samantha Wiley scored with less then five seconds remaining in the quarter, but the Lions had the momentum.
“The play before we had taken the lead, so when we got the steal and scored, we could start extending our lead,” said Kate Ross, who had 10 points. “It’s hard to always be behind and come back. That’s what we had to do at Camden. So it was nice to finally be in the driver’s seat.”
Bailey opened the fourth with a short jumper from the baseline for a five-point lead, and that’s where the Belfast defense took over. The Lions held the Windjammers scoreless from the field until a basket with 3:18 left in the game. Camden Hills did make three free throws in that stretch, but the ‘Jammers missed three, too.
Belfast went 12-for-16 from the line in the fourth quarter.
Kayla Gushee put a bit of a scare into the Lions late as she hit two 3-pointers in the final minute, but the Lions responded with five free throws to maintain the lead.
Camden Hills coach Jay Carlsen said the Windjammers didn’t move enough on offense late in the game to create more shot opportunities.
“We were just standing there,” he said. “They play good defense, but when you’re guarding a stationary player, it makes it a lot easier. We talked about it, worked a lot on our movement away from the ball, and it’s just a matter of being mentally tough late in the game.”
The Lions had senior Kate Murphy guarding Marianne Croce, the Windjammers’ leading scorer. It was a bit of redemption for Murphy, who guarded Croce in the teams’ first matchup and saw the Camden Hills sophomore standout score 20 points. This time around she scored nine points, as did Wiley.
LIONS 40, WINDJAMMERS 32
Camden Hills (11-5) Belfast (13-3)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
Wiley 3 11 2 4 9 Ellis 0 4 3
Friesland 1 2 0 0 3 Read 0 0 0
Smith 0 3 0 0 0 K.Ross 2 5 10
Newcomb 0 1 0 0 0 Murphy 3 4 8
Holgerson 0 0 0 0 0 J.Ross 1 2 3
Gushee 3 7 0 0 8 Bailey 3 3 11
Neville 1 2 0 0 2 Gray 0 0 0
Richards 0 1 0 0 0 Flagg 1 4 5
Hart 0 3 1 2 1
Croce 2 7 5 6 9
Totals 10 37 8 12 32 10 22 19 24 40
Camden Hills 7 13 19 32
Belfast 3 9 22 40
3-pt. goals ? Camden Hills (4-15): Gushee 2-5, Friesland 1-1, Wiley 1-5, Smith 0-2, Croce 0-2; Belfast (1-6): K. Ross 1-3, J. Ross 0-1, Flagg 0-2
Attendance: 400 (est.)
JV: Camden Hills 32-27
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