Westbrook 69

Portland 45

While most of the high school sports world was shut down for the holiday season, the Westbrook High School girls basketball team was in action over the break, traveling to Portland to beat the Portland Bulldogs 69-45 at the Portland Expo on Dec. 27.

The Blazes pulled out to a big first quarter lead, thanks in a large part to the efforts of forward Cynthia Wescott, who had eight of her game-high 22 points in the first quarter. Wescott actually came close to outscoring the entire Portland team on her own in the period as the Lady Blazes pulled out to a 17-9 lead at the end of the first.

It was more of the same in the second quarter as Wescott came up with big blocks and forward Audrey Shutts poured in 11 points (she finished with 15 in the game). Shutts also was a force in the paint, getting several of her points off offensive rebounds, fighting for the ball and putting it right back in.

Wescott started a nice play with 3:31 left in the first half. As she was inbounding the ball, she found guard Erin Murphy on a nifty backdoor pass, giving Murphy an easy layup (Murphy finished the game with 12 points) and Westbrook a 29-14 lead.

The Blazes would extend that lead to 36-16 right at the end of the half as guard Danielle Miranda hit a nice running layup. However, Portland cut into the lead right at the buzzer with a long shot to cut the lead to 36-18.

Coming out for the second half, the Blazes kept up the pressure on the Bulldogs. Just seconds into the half, Wescott and Murphy hooked up once again. Wescott found Murphy with a length-of-the-court pass, setting Murphy up for a nice running lay-in to extend the Blazes’ lead to 36-18.

The Blazes blew the game wide open in the third quarter, outscoring the Bulldogs 19-9, running the lead to as high as 28, finishing the quarter with a 55-27 lead.

The Bulldogs tried to make a game of it in the fourth quarter, but the Blazes were too much for them, and Westbrook won the game going away.

After the game, Westbrook coach Mike Murphy said he was pleased with how his team played, especially in the Expo, a building that has not been kind to them over the years. “It was a great effort,” he said. “The kids come out and played basketball the way it’s supposed to be played. It was one of our better performances in this building.”