WINDHAM – When Windham needed some breathing room, Meghan Gribbin stepped in and opened up the gaps to provide plenty of it.

Gribbin contributed 31 points to lead the Eagles to a 47-42 victory over Sanford in an SMAA girls’ basketball game Friday night.

She scored nine in the first quarter as Windham took a 13-10 lead. Then with 3:27 left in the third period, Gribbin hit two free throws that helped the Eagles build a 34-25 lead entering the fourth.

Finally, after Sanford cut the lead to seven and seemed poised to make a late charge, Gribbin hit a 3-pointer that extended Windham’s lead to 10.

“Everything is through her,” Sanford Coach Kristy Parent said of Gribbin. “If she’s having a great night, they’re having a good night. She beat us, in my opinion, flat out, even when we had a defender on her.

“She had it from start to finish. They’re good at getting her the ball and she’s a competitor.”

Ultimately, Gribbin said, her success and her team’s success came as a result of preparation, knowing they had to key in on Sanford’s guards and create turnovers to produce scoring opportunities.

“We watched a lot of game film against them and we went in knowing what they like to do,” Gribbin said.

“We tried to work on our matchups and make sure of everyone’s tendencies, and that helped us a lot because we knew what defense to run and we knew who their key players were.”

While Gribbin maintained a rhythm all night, Parent said her team had trouble not only finding a way to stop her, but also had difficulty finding someone to rise up and lead the Redskins’ offense.

“From start to finish, they controlled the game,” Parent said.

“We came back in the fourth, but mentally everyone was looking to somebody else to kind of take over us, as far as the offense is concerned.

“Collectively, defensively we weren’t playing great. It’s those two combinations.”

Windham (5-2) took a 13-10 lead into the second quarter after Sanford guard Taylor Littlefield’s 3-point shot bounced off the backboard just before the buzzer.

Less than three minutes into the second quarter, Taylor Flood’s basket capped a 7-2 run and gave Sanford (4-2) its first lead at 17-15.

But less than a minute later, Gribbin answered by hitting one of her four 3-pointers to give the lead back to the Eagles, who built the margin to 25-19 at halftime.

Sanford again cut Windham’s lead to 27-25 on Flood’s shot midway through the third, but the Eagles took a 34-25 lead into the fourth and held off the Redskins, who came within six points of the Eagles late in the game.

“The third quarter, after halftime, we noticed they were getting tired so we keyed in on that and we knew — push it, push it and we’d be able to score easy baskets,” Gribbin said. “Everybody, not just the guards, everybody stepped up and recognized that and turned it into easy points.

“We did a really good job of backing off (defensively) and not getting lazy. We were smart and knew what to do and when to do it.”

Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be contacted at 791-6415 or at:

rlenzi@pressherald.com