Inspired ‘Jammers top Mount View

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ROCKPORT – The Camden Hills girls basketball team was the model of efficiency in the first quarter of Friday evening’s game against Mount View.

Beneath that, however, the Windjammers were playing with heavy hearts.

Undefeated Camden Hills forced turnovers, hit 3-pointers, played excellent defense and rolled to a big first-period lead on its way to a 61-36 victory over the Mustangs of Thorndike.

It was the Windjammers’ 12th win, but it came hours after the girls got the news that David “Doc” Littlefield, a longtime biology teacher and freshman girls basketball coach before his retirement last year, died Friday morning. Littlefield had cancer.

“Everyone knew him,” said Camden Hills junior Kayla Gushee, who led the ‘Jammers with 16 points and had Littlefield for biology. “At the beginning of the game we decided we wanted to do it for Doc, and everyone was so pumped. We just wanted to win for him.”

Coach Jay Carlsen’s Windjammers observed a moment of silence and wore black tape on their thumbs. They looked strong early, jumping out to an 18-3 lead while forcing 10 turnovers. Gushee scored nine points in the first period.

Against Mount View’s 1-2-2 zone, Gushee went 3-for-3 from beyond the arc in the first quarter. She hit four of her six 3-point attempts in the game to lead a 7-for-18 effort overall by Camden Hills.

“We’ve been working on playing against a zone defense the last few days in practice because we knew they were going to come out in it,” Gushee said. “They weren’t coming out on us at all, so whoever was open was shooting. We’re all good 3-point shooters.”

In one key first quarter sequence, Camden Hills’ Allie Parent scored on an offensive rebound put-back and drew a foul – the second on the Mustangs’ leading scorer, Kelsy Richard. Parent missed the free throw, but got the ball back on another offensive board and passed it to Gushee, who drained her second 3-pointer of the game.

That play gave the Windjammers an 11-2 lead. After a Mount View free throw Gushee hit another 3-pointer, followed by baskets from Christina Philoon and Kate Fetterman.

Mount View (5-7) struggled at times against both Camden Hills’ full-court press and in its halfcourt offense, and wound up with 22 first half turnovers.

“We came out and we were scared to death. We played so tentative and the game was over in the first half,” said Mustangs coach John Donato. “They hit all those threes. The whole tempo of the game was set in the first quarter and we couldn’t rebound from there.”

Camden Hills had a 35-10 halftime lead. Mount View had just three first half field goals.

The Windjammers’ offense was well balanced with 11 of their 14 players scoring. Kayla Carleton scored nine points, including three 3-pointers in the first half, and Parent added eight points. Gushee had five assists.

Richard led the Mustangs with 12 points and nine rebounds. Camden Hills forward Kristin Richards said Richard and forward Tonya Jones were the focal points on defense.

“We had to keep them out of the paint because that’s their thing,” Richards said. “Once they post you, you can’t really do anything about it. You have to stay in front of them and get a hand in their lane. We wanted to force them to go outside.”

WINDJAMMERS 61, MUSTANGS 36

Mount View (5-7) Camden Hills (12-0)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Bennett 3 8 0 0 6 Coleman 0 0 0

Ray 0 1 0 0 0 Colson 1 4 0 2

Kenney 0 2 0 0 0 Johnson 2 6 5

Miles 2 7 3 6 7 Carleton 3 12 0 0 9

J.Masessa 0 3 0 0 0 Parent 4 7 8

Jones 2 4 0 0 4 Tedford 2 3 5

K.Masessa 1 5 0 0 2 Smith 0 1 1

Mehuren 1 2 0 0 2 Philoon 3 4 6

Montminy 0 4 0 0 0 Gushee 5 10 16

Caler 0 0 3 4 3 Fettrman 2 4

Richard 5 7 2 4 12 Richards 1 Holgrson 1 1 1 4 3

Kwtkwsky 0 1 0

Smeaton 0 1 0 0

Totals 14 43 8 14 36 Totals 24 58 17 61

Mount View 3 10 23 36

Camden Hills 18 35 51 61

3-pt. goals – Mount View (0-5): Bennett 0-1, K. Masessa 0-1, Montminy 0-1, Miles 0-2; Camden Hills (7-18): Gushee 4-6, Carleton 3-7, Parent 0-1, Richards 0-1, Smith 0-1, Colson 0-2

JV: Mount View 60-34

Attendance: 300 (est.)