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DEXTER – Mallory Ames missed her first shot in Friday night’s game against Central. The Dexter girls basketball team’s senior center didn’t miss too many more from there, especially in the third quarter, to help the Tigers put away the rival Red Devils of Corinth 40-20.
Ames scored 20 points, including the 1,000th of her career, to help Dexter win its sixth straight and move to 6-1 this season.
She reached the milestone – just the third Dexter girl to do so, the second being Ames’ older sister, Ashley Ames – in front of a packed, loud Guiski Gymnasium.
The atmosphere didn’t seem to bother Central (5-6), which played a variation on a triangle-and-2 defense with freshman Jocelyn Portmann guarding Ames and Cat Melton on Dexter’s Katie Poirier. The Devils also had Erica Brownell in the middle to help defend the post.
The strategy seemed to work for a while as Ames got into foul trouble early, picking up her second foul with 1:56 left in the first quarter, and was held to five points and Dexter scored just 17 in the first half.
But the Devils didn’t take advantage on the offensive end, scoring just 13 themselves, and with a 4-point halftime lead the Tigers went inside immediately in the third quarter to pull away. Poirier opened with an offensive-rebound putback, followed by Ames’ basket off a pass from Chelsie Chambers (eight points).
Chambers had three more assists in the quarter, with Miranda Gove and Michelle Chapman also dishing inside to Ames. Six of Dexter’s seven field goals in the third period came off assists.
“I think we really took our time and calmed down, looked at our options inside instead of panicking and forcing it when it wasn’t there,” Chambers said.
Ames went 5-for-7 from the floor in the third quarter.
“We worked hard and got a play that got me open, and Katie open, so that helped,” she said.
The Tigers played tough man-to-man defense with Gove guarding shooter Mackie Davis, who scored 20 points in Dexter’s 52-44 win on Dec. 14 in Corinth. The Central guard hit one field goal on nine attempts and the Devils scored only seven points in the second half.
“We couldn’t get our offense going, no matter what,” Rollins said. “We couldn’t hit anything. … I am happy to see we held a team like that to 40 points. That’s a plus for us.”
Dexter coach Jody Grant was also pleased with his defense, which helped compensate for 21 turnovers.
“Our defense needs to carry us through the rough spots when we don’t score or we turn the ball over, and the defense did that tonight,” he said. “[Central] did get some good looks and fortunately for us they didn’t knock them down.”
The Tigers a 39-23 rebounding edge. Ames and Poirier combined for 17 rebounds.
Brownell led Central with seven points and Melton had seven rebounds.
Ames was coming off a school-record 44-point performance against Searsport Wednesday, which got her to 999 career points. She missed her first shot but grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back to get to 1,001 just 20 seconds into the game.
“I expected to miss more than that,” Ames said with a smile. “… I wanted to get it out of the way so we could finish the game and win.”
That game stopped at that point and Ames got an ovation as well as a surprise appearance from her sister, Ashley Ames, a 2005 Dexter graduate who scored more than 1,500 points in her Dexter career. Ashley Ames presented Mallory Ames with the game ball.
Shawna McKenney was the first Dexter girl to reach 1,000 points.
TIGERS 40, RED DEVILS 20
Central (5-6) Dexter (7-1)
Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP
R. McHugh 0 0 0 1 0 Ames 9 15 20
Davis 1 9 0 0 2 Chambers 4 8
K. McHugh 0 0 0 0 0 Gove 1 4 2
Brownell 3 10 1 2 7 Patterson 0 0
Morin 0 2 0 2 0 Burton 0 3 0
Blanchard 0 1 2 4 2 Chapman 0 1 0
Portmann 0 2 4 6 4 Richardsn 1 4
Melton 1 3 2 3 4 Poirier 3 9 6
Trafton 0 8 1 2 1 Clukey 0 0 0
Murray 0 0 0 0
Lawson 0 0 0 0
Totals 5 35 10 20 20 Totals 18 43 40
Central 8 13 16 20
Dexter 10 17 32 40
3-pt. goals – Central (0-2): Davis 0-2; Dexter: none
JV: Central 23-17
Attendance: 500 (est.)
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