The Bangor High School girls basketball team has little to complain about. The Rams are 4-1 and emerged from a tough stretch of games with wins against Nokomis of Newport, Lawrence of Fairfield and Messalonskee of Oakland since Dec. 20 – and they’re playing spectacular defense.

That said, coach Tom Tennett wouldn’t mind a bit more scoring and offensive consistency.

“I think that’s going to be something we’ll deal with all year long,” he said after Friday’s 37-34 victory over Messalonskee at Red Barry Gymnasium. “We have a lot of really good players who work really hard. But we don’t have that one go-to player when you need that one shot.”

No one Bangor player is averaging more than 10 points. Center Kelsey Curtis leads the Rams with 9.8 points per game, followed by forward Serena Dubois’ 8.4 ppg.

Ilyse Angst leads the guards with 7 ppg.

Although the Rams have been well-balanced offensively, they haven’t been converting field goals regularly – especially for a team that looks inside to 6-foot-1 senior Curtis and 5-9 senior Dubois.

“We just have to go back to our fundamental shots and make those bunny layups,” Dubois said. “It hasn’t been working for us lately.”

The Rams went 10-for-41 from the floor against Messalonskee and were 12-for-39 in Tuesday’s win over Nokomis.

Bangor has also struggled at times from the perimeter. The Rams have hit three 3-pointers in their last four games.

It’s a bad streak to get into – especially as the opposing teams look to shut down Curtis and Dubois.

“We’re going to have to start shooting the ball a little better from the perimeter or everyone’s going to start doing that,” Tennett said.

Bangor’s best results have come at the free-throw line. Bangor made nine foul shots in its first two games combined, but since then the Rams have made an average of 15.3 per contest.

The Rams have also been able to get some offense out of their bench players. Backup forward Tawyna Godinez had a team-high 12 points in a 53-33 win over Hampden; guard Allie Clukey scored eight points in a 50-44 victory over Lawrence of Fairfield; and guard Caitlin Smith has scored in every game so far this year. She had six points against Messalonskee, including two base-line drives in a 1-minute span in the second half.

And Bangor just seems to find offense when it needs to. The Rams were down 23-20 to Nokomis on Dec. 20 when Curtis put back a rebound to spark a seven-point run.

They outscored Lawrence 16-7 in the fourth quarter Wednesday to overcome a three-point deficit.

And Friday, Bangor made five free throws in the final 1:10 to seal the win against Messalonskee.

“This has been a huge week for us with Nokomis, Lawrence and Messalonskee, and it seems like every game we’ve had some type of a run at some point in time,” Tennett said.

But the Rams’ defense has been the difference.

In the Messalonskee game, for example, Bangor had a 37-34 lead in the final 15 seconds with the Eagles on offense and looking for a 3-point shot. Not only did the Rams deny any open looks, but guard Amy Hackett stole the ball in the closing seconds of the game.

“I think the kids are showing a little more maturity and they’re not making some of the mental mistakes they did when they were a little younger,” Tennett said. “I thought everyone on the perimeter did a nice job down the stretch.”

Bangor has given up an average of 37.3 points per game since a season-opening 54-47 loss to 2005 Eastern Maine Class A runner-up Skowhegan.

The Rams’ bench has helped on defense, too.

“Allie Clukey played great last two games, [Friday] it seemed like it was Emily Heath,” Tennett said. “We just have a lot of great kids and we’re just trying to find out every night who to stay with.”

Bragdon dealing with ACL

Yet another Eastern Maine Class A basketball standout has suffered a knee injury. In this case, however, Nokomis of Newport senior Alyssa Bragdon is playing through her injury, for the most part.

“I’m going to try to have surgery in February, after the season,” she said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

Bragdon, the twin sister of Ashley Bragdon, who herself suffered a similar injury in her freshman year, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee one week before the preseason started in November.

“I was trying to get in shape for the season, and I went up for a layup, came down and tore my ACL,” Alyssa Bragdon said.

Bragdon has played in four of five Nokomis games this year, missing only the Dec. 20 matchup against Bangor. Bragdon sat out of that game because she tweaked the injury while trying to get a rebound in a Dec. 17 game against Mt. Blue of Farmington.

She was back on the court for Friday’s 35-33 loss to Brewer. Bragdon had a season-high 11 points in a 75-54 win over Old Town on Dec. 13.

Hampden guard Tanna Ross and Bangor guard Mark Socoby are both sidelined with ACL injuries. Bragdon said she tore her ACL two days after she found out about Ross’ injury.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.