Witches hold Rams in check

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BREWER – What a present for senior Katie Kenney.

Never in Kenney’s four seasons on the Brewer girls basketball team had she been part of a win over rival Bangor -not until Thursday night, anyway, when the center scored a game-high 11 points to lead the Witches to a 40-23 victory against the Rams at the high school gymnasium.

“We’ve always been so close every year, so this is so amazing for my senior year,” Kenney said.

Bangor defeated Brewer 64-56 on Dec. 18.

The Witches’ last victory over the Rams came in a Feb. 12, 2003 game in which Brewer won 54-51 at Bangor’s Red Barry Gymnasium.

Kenney helped out in a defensive effort that shut down the entire Bangor team. She was responsible for guarding center Stephanie Comstock and held her to four points, but none of the Rams played well on the offensive end.

Brooke Hackett, who has put up some big scoring numbers lately, had a team-best seven points for Bangor. No other starter even came close as the Rams hit just six of their 35 field-goal attempts – and were 1-for-13 in the first half.

Bangor was also 0-for-11 from 3-point range.

“We were outcoached, we were outplayed, we were outhustled, we were outworked,” Bangor coach Tom Tennett said. “We didn’t play well in any facet of the game.”

The Witches started out in a man-to-man defense and eventually went to a matchup zone, holding the Rams to 12 points through three quarters.

“We threw in a couple of different defenses to make [Bangor] work,” Kenney said. “We had to make sure we kept them off the free-throw [line] and keep them from making 3s. That’s what we did. We came out and played one of our best games.”

Although two Brewer starters eventually fouled out, as did a Bangor starter, the Rams went 11-for-20 from the free-throw line.

“I don’t think it was anything schematic,” Tennett said. “We could have taken the ball to the basket all night long. We needed to get them in foul trouble but we relied on jump shots. We didn’t go to the offensive boards at all. We just stunk.”

Witches coach Andy Nickerson was pleased with his squad’s defense.

“[Bangor] usually shoot the ball well and I thought tonight our defense must have had an effect on them, and we just stayed in [the zone],” he said. “We wanted to maintain the same intensity that we do in man and that particular defense allows us to do that.”

Brewer spread out its offense after Kenney’s 11 points. Meghan McLain scored nine points, including a 23-footer against Bangor’s 1-3-1 zone early in the second quarter.

“We like playing against zone,” McLain said. “We run a more patient offense and it gets us better looks.”

Sheri Valley and Leah Jackson added seven points apiece.

Kenney, who was one of three senior basketball players and one senior cheerleader honored before the game, also grabbed six rebounds despite foul trouble.

Brewer had a 34-32 rebounding edge with 12 offensive boards to just nine for Bangor.

“Rebounds were a huge thing for us,” said Jackson, who along with McLain had seven rebounds. “We really wanted to focus on that.”

Tennett is hoping the Rams, who will likely be the fifth seed for the Eastern Maine Class A tournament, will rebound Friday in a makeup game against Mt. Blue of Farmington. It could be key for Bangor’s confidence, especially if the Rams don’t play a preliminary round game before the tournament starts.

“We need to play again,” he said. “We need to get rid of this game and hopefully we can do that against Mt. Blue.”

Brewer’s win was the first for Nickerson against a Tennett-coached Bangor team. Tennett was Nickerson’s coach on the Brewer boys’ junior varsity team in the 1980-81 season, which was Nickerson’s freshman year. Tennett and Nickerson are friendly off the court now, too.

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

990-8193

WITCHES 40, RAMS 23

Bangor (13-4) Brewer (7-11)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Jackson 0 0 0 0 0 Hutchins 1 3

B.Hackett 2 8 3 5 7 Adams 1 3 3

Roberts 0 0 0 0 0 Murphy 0 0 0

Tocci 0 1 0 0 0 Valley 2 5 7

A.Hackett 0 5 3 6 3 Alkswicz 0 0

Jellison 1 1 0 0 2 Kenney 4 6 11

Frdnbrgr 0 2 0 0 0 Jackson 2 5 7

Doucette 0 2 0 0 0 McLain 2 13 9

Dana 0 0 1 2 1 Boulier 0 0 0 0

Wadleigh 1 5 2 2 4 Bryant 0 0 0

Sivik 0 1 0 0 0 Judkins 0 2 0

Curtis 0 0 0 0 0

Clukey 1 8 0 1 2

Comstock 1 1 2 4 4

Thrckmrtn 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 6 35 11 20 23 Totals 12 36 13 27 40

Bangor 3 6 12 23

Brewer 6 18 30 40

3-pt. goals – Bangor (0-11): Throckmorton 0-1, Wadleigh 0-1, A. Hackett 0-2, Clukey 0-3, B. Hackett 0-4; Brewer (3-13): McLain 2-9, Hutchins 1-1, Judkins 0-1, Adams 0-2

JV: Brewer 40-38

Attendance: 400 (est.)