BANGOR – The Nokomis girls basketball team hates to see a zone defense because it makes it harder for star forward Danielle Clark to get open.

But Nokomis of Newport wouldn’t need Clark’s scoring for a Saturday afternoon matchup against Bangor at Red Barry Gym. They had senior guard Michelle Murray, whose shooting touch sparked the Warriors to a 50-34 Big East Conference Class A win over the Rams.

Murray drained six of her nine 3-point attempts en route to a game-best 26 points. In the second quarter, when the University of New Hampshire-bound Clark did not take a shot, Murray scored 11 of Nokomis’ 13 points as the Warriors (2-1) pulled away.

Murray has averaged 18 points in the team’s first three games and has hit nine 3-pointers so far.

“The light’s starting to come on for Michelle Murray,” Nokomis coach Earl Anderson said. “She did the things that she’s capable of doing. She played really well today and I thought we played well as a team.”

The Rams (2-1) stayed close into the second period as Nokomis had a four-point lead after the first. Warriors guard Lindsey Welch (a 5-4 senior who had a team-high seven rebounds) got Nokomis started with a steal and fast-break basket for a 15-9 lead.

Bangor sophomore Caroline Weymouth answered with a drive to the basket, but Murray hit her first 3-pointer of the game – off a Welch pass – 23 seconds later to make it 18-11.

Ram junior Laura Clarke made a jumper from the left baseline to cut the lead to five points, but Murray was unstoppable. She made another 3-pointer, again off a pass from Welch, and 12 seconds later stole the ball and put in a transition basket.

Clarke scored again for Bangor, but Murray drained a 3-pointer with 3.6 seconds left for a 26-15 halftime lead.

“We had really, really good ball movement today,” Murray said. “The last few practices we’ve really been intense, working on ball movement.”

Murray went 3-for-4 from 3-point range in the second half.

“We made some mistakes on Murray in the first half that gave her some open looks at [3-pointers],” Bangor coach Tom Tennett said. “They’re very good. We’re just not at that level now … but I really think we have a lot of room for improvement. I was really impressed with some things we did.”

Bangor’s 1-3-1 zone did hold Clark to 11 points, five of which came at the free-throw line. She was 3-for-8 from the floor.

“That’s fine,” Clark said. “Michelle’s hitting and Lindsey’s playing good defense.”

Clarke led Bangor with 12 points, including six in the third quarter. Weymouth added 11 points.

WARRIORS 50, RAMS 34

Nokomis (2-1) Bangor (2-1)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Welch 2 8 2 4 6 Ogden 1 1 3

Murray 9 14 2 2 26 Porter 0 6 0

Barden 2 4 0 0 4 Clarke 6 9 12

Snow 1 4 0 1 3 McLeod 2 4 0 4

Gonzalez 0 1 0 0 0 McAllian 0 0

Paradis 0 3 0 0 0 McCrum 0 2 0

Merrow 0 0 0 0 0 Russell 0 2 0

Perry 0 0 0 0 0 Zitaner 1 1 2

Lowe 0 0 0 0 0 Hayden 0 1 0 0

Clark 3 8 5 6 11 Chase 1 1 2

Curtis 0 0 0 0

Weymouth 4 12 11

Bradford 0 0 0

Sullivan 0 0 0

Totals 17 42 9 13 50 15 39 34

Nokomis 13 26 39 50

Bangor 9 15 26 34

3-pt. goals: Nokomis (7-15): Murray 6-9, Snow 1-2, Barden 0-1, Clark 0-1, Welch 0-2; Bangor (0-4): Weymouth 0-1, McLeod 0-1, Porter 0-2

Attendance: 300 (est.)

Preliminary: Bangor 63-29