Sevey, Smith give Skowhegan spark Indians’ defense stifles Brewer

loading...

BREWER – The Brewer Witches came out of the gates Tuesday night with something to prove to themselves.

“Our last game we didn’t play with any intensity and our whole focus tonight was to just play as intense as we could,” said Brewer coach Andy Nickerson.

Unfortunately for Brewer, on the other side of those gates were the Skowhegan Indians.

The Indians dominated the fourth quarter, outscoring the Witches 28-5, and rolled to the 66-36 win. Skowhegan improves to 14-1, while Brewer falls to 6-9.

Skowhegan’s 5-foot-10 junior forwards Bethany Sevey and Megan Smith dominated under the basket, combining for 30 of the Indian’s 66 points.

Sevey tossed in a game-high 16 points and Smith played solid all-around, finishing with 14 points, eight rebounds and three steals.

Without senior forward Kayla Thompson, who is still recovering from a dislocated kneecap suffered against Old Town a week ago, Skowhegan had to rely on a seven-player rotation.

Senior guard Allie LaGross and junior guard Zara Saydjari proved to be just the spark Skowhegan needed off the bench.

“Allie’s 5-4 if she really strains and stands on her tip-toes,” said Skowhegan coach Heath Cowan. “But she fought underneath and really kept us in the game in the first half.”

LaGross finished with six rebounds, five in the first half, to go along with seven points.

Saydjari took over the point-guard position from senior Nicole Paradis, allowing her to have more opportunities on both ends of the floor.

“When you look in the scorebook tomorrow you won’t see any points or any rebounds, but defensively and running the point she brings so much to the floor,” said Cowan. “Having Z playing the point really opened Nicole up to shoot and let her focus on defending [Brewer senior Katie] Quimby,” said Cowan.

Quimby led the Witches with 11 points, but was limited to only one field goal, a 3-pointer, in the second half.

“To beat a team like that you have to play 32 straight minutes,” said Nickerson.

Paradis finished with five points and five assists.

Quimby’s eight first-half points along with the Witches’ intensity and scrappy play kept them close, and the Witches found themselves only down 23-20 going into the intermission.

“I wasn’t pleased with our defense in the first half and I challenged them at halftime to come out and play Skowhegan basketball,” said Cowan.

Brewer stayed within seven points going into the fourth quarter, but the Indians came out firing. Skowhegan used a 10-0 run in the first two minutes to go up 48-31 and never looked back.

“We need to learn to overcome the fact that good teams are going to make runs like that,” said Nickerson. “We just ran out of gas.”

INDIANS 66, WITCHES 36

Skowhegan (14-1) Brewer (6-9)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Saydjari 0 3 0 2 0 Quimby 4 10 11

Paradis 2 10 0 0 5 Wilson 2 7 4

Sevey 6 10 3 4 16 Cote 2 6 4

Atkinson 0 0 0 0 0 Martin 1 2 2

LaGross 2 4 3 6 7 Gomm 0 0 0

Pinkham 2 5 0 0 4 Jackson 3 8 7

Matchett 2 2 0 0 6 M.McLain 0 2

Miller 3 8 0 2 9 Seymour 0 1 0

Veinotte 0 0 0 1 0 J. McLain 1 11 4 6 6

Ames 0 0 0 0 0

Smith 6 12 2 2 14

Brown 1 1 1 2 3

Evans 1 1 0 0 2

Totals 25 56 9 19 66 Totals 13 49 16 36

Skowhegan 12 23 38 66

Brewer 9 20 31 36

3-pt. goals – Skowhegan (7-18): Paradis (1-6), Sevey (1-2), LaGross (0-1), Pinkham (0-1), Matchett (2-2), Miller (3-6); Brewer (3-10): Quimby (3-5), Wilson (0-1), Cote (0-1), M. McLain (0-2), Seymour (0-1)

JV: Skowhegan 54-22

Attendance: 150 (est.)