Tigers scratch the Trojans

BIDDEFORD — The Biddeford girls basketball team on Monday night, won the first of two Battle of the Bridge games from Thornton Academy Monday night.

However, the Tigers will need to forget the win quickly, as Biddeford plays against the Golden Trojans in another matchup next week.

The Tigers defeated the Trojans, 58-41, in front of a packed crowd inside the Steve White Gym.

Even with the loss, it is still likely the Trojans, currently ranked sixth in the Maine Principals Association Heal Point standings, will reach the Maine Western Class A playoffs for the first time in more than a decade.

Thornton Academy senior guard Alanna Richard said experience has been the biggest factor in the Trojans’ success this season.

“We’re very experienced, we’ve been playing together for three years, and we played together in middle school, too,” Richard said. “We’re just playing really well and it’s just clicked, and finally we’re here and playing so well, with so much intensity. Our defense has improved so much and we’re going strong.”

Richard said while the team, which finished 6-12 last season, is surpised by the turnaround, it’s not lacking in confidence.

“We’re shocked, but not that much because we’ve had so much confidence coming into this season,” Richard said. “We just wanted to make it so far, and we thought we could play a lot better together and we have and it’s just clicked this year, finally.”

Biddeford has a seven-game winning streak, and snapped Thornton Academy’s five-game winnng streak.

The Tigers (11-3) never relinquished their lead throughout the game, though the Trojans (9-5) made many comeback attempts.

“They couldn’t miss, and we weren’t fully on our shots,” Richard said. “They just had a lot more opportunities and shots and double opportunities.”

The story of the first half was Biddeford forward Keila Grigware, who dominated the low post, scoring 17 of the Tigers’ 30 first half points.

Grigware finished with a game-high 23 points.

Thornton attacked the Tigers’ “Orange” press defense with long cross-court passes and a fast break defense.

Richard took advantage, scoring eight of her 14 points in the first half.

Teammate Lauren Titus also added eight points and Meghan Agger scored seven points.

To fight the Trojans’ offense, Biddeford head coach Ron Cote switched the defensive strategy in the second half.

“I thought we gave up some layups early,” Cote said. “We were in our orange press, our 2-2-1, then we went to a 1-2-1-1 zone press. So we changed it up, put a little more pressure on the first entry pass, tried to do a better job of keeping Keila deep, and stopping the layup. I think we did a better job of that. [Thornton] has some athletes and they push the ball up the floor. They did a nice job, and I think we did a better job in the second half.”

Biddeford’s offense shifted as well, as the focus moved from Grigware and the Tigers’ supporting cast became more involved. Lauren Rousseau and Aimee Michaud led the Tigers’ scoring in the second half.

Rousseau, the Tigers’ point guard, worked her way around the court, making no-look passes, shooting a 3-pointer, while also making drives to the hoop and even making an occassional diving layup to finish with 13 points.

Michaud, a guard, used shots from the corner to her advantage, as she finished with 10 points.

“It’s always good to see Aimee Michaud, I don’t know how many she had, but she hit most of her shots,” Grigware said. “It’s always good to have those girls hit their shots and help be supporting players.”

The Tigers have no worries about the playoffs, as the 2008-2009 Western Class A runners-up are ranked fourth in the MPA Heal Point standings.

Both teams play against each other again in the regular season finale on Feb. 4 at the Linnell Gym in Saco.

Richard said Thornton will have to work on its screens in order to play better in the second meeting with the Tigers.

“Probably the screens, we kept getting caught under the block area and every shot they would miss, Keila would get double opportunies,” Richard said. “We need to work on getting screened and fighting through them and edging.”

Grigware said the Tigers can’t let the win over the Trojans affect the way the team plays on Feb. 4.

“We won and it’s good, but we can’t let it get in our head the next time we play them,” Grigware said. “We have to go out there with the same mindset we did today, that way we won’t get upset.”

Battle of the Brige

For those keeping score, Biddeford has a 2-0 advantage over Thornton Academy for the Winter sports season, as the Biddeford boys hockey team defeated Thornton Academy 3-2 in overtime on Jan. 9. Four more games are scheduled between the rival schools. Biddeford and Thornton Academy boys basketball will square off against each other tonight at Linnell Gym. Game time is 7 o’clock.