Normally, Gorham girls basketball coach Sherry Coyne and her assistants will use portions of practice to walk their players through the mistakes they’ve been making in games.

They will then demonstrate how those mistakes can be fixed with more walk-through drills.

During school vacation week, though, the Rams didn’t practice. They played two games in the one-day Winter Hoop Festival on Tuesday and then traveled to Portland for a regular-season make-up game on Friday.

Coyne and her assistants were forced to do their coaching on the fly. Leading the Bulldogs by just a point at halftime, the Rams made the necessary adjustments, built a comfortable third-quarter lead and won, 41-32.

“We’re doing a lot of talking and trying to teach them lessons as the games are going on,” said Coyne, whose team improved to 3-3. “So, one of things that at halftime we talked about was, ‘We’re not playing our game. We’re being rushed and we’re just making stupid decisions, bad decisions.’

“So we needed to slow it down, keep the ball in front of us and work the ball offensively, and they did it.”

The first half was a different story. The Rams had trouble with Portland’s full-court press in the first quarter and were able to muster just six points.

The second quarter was better – Gorham took its first lead of the game three minutes in when junior forward Ashley Michaud hit a putback bucket and a free throw – but the offense still wasn’t functioning the way it’s supposed to.

Luckily, the defense was doing enough to keep things close.

“We hope to keep the other team’s scoring down because a lot of times when our shots aren’t dropping we can still win games because our defense is tough,” said junior guard Kelsey Wilson.

The Rams fell behind by four after taking a 13-11 lead on Michaud’s free throw, but they rallied and went into halftime up, 20-19. At that point, it was time for Coyne and Co. to put some of their in-game coaching skills to use.

According to junior guard Caitlyn Butterfield, the second half turnaround that ensued wasn’t the result of anything all that complex.

“We just ran the offense well,” she said. “We passed it around. We got good shot selection, better than we usually have, so we were just passing it around and hitting the open shots.”

And the unopened shots, as well as the foul shots and everything else in between.

Freshman Rachele Burns opened the third quarter with a three-pointer from the left wing, and Michaud followed that up with a pair of free throws to make it 25-19.

The Bulldogs got a point back seconds later on a free throw by Alex Koocher, but that would be the only time they added to their total in the quarter.

“What it comes down to is we’re very young, we’re inexperienced,” said Portland coach Ed Feeney. “They see the open kid, but when it closes they’re still trying to hit the kid. And it’s just inexperience.

“We didn’t get the job done. We didn’t box out. We turned the ball over. That was the difference, turning the ball over, I thought. We just couldn’t control the ball.”

It didn’t help matters that the Bulldogs found themselves in early foul trouble. Linda Nguany was whistled for her fourth with just three minutes gone in the third, and Koocher fouled out with 28 seconds left.

The Rams took advantage, outscoring Portland 10-0 over the last five minutes of the quarter. Michaud had four more points, while senior guard Ashley Seiler added four of her own.

The biggest bucket, though, came with 2:40 to go when Wilson hit an open jumper after the ball quickly worked its way inside and out, then back around the three-point arc.

“We’re trying to get them to understand to spin that ball, reverse it and you’re going to get a nice shot off a reverse,” said Coyne, whose team held onto the lead in the fourth quarter.

With school back in session this week there will be plenty of time to illustrate the point at practice.