WATERBORO — The real gift giving isn’t supposed to take place for another day or so.
Yet the girls basketball team from Massabesic got going a little early, presenting themselves with its first win of the season, 57-47, over previously unbeaten Thornton Academy, Friday, at Ronco Gym.
Morgan Reny’s 19 points, which tied her with Thornton’s Meghan Agger for game high honors, led the way for the Mustangs (1-3), who had four scorers hit double figures.
“Gosh it was amazing,” said Reny a senior co-captain guard. “The team effort was awesome. That’s what won it.”
Massabesic led from wire-to-wire, and held its largest lead, 50-35, early in the fourth quarter.
“We went back to the drawing board this week,” said first year Massabesic coach Holly Brassard, who formerly coached at Wells. “Trying to see what we could do offensively. To utilize our inside and our outside shooters. And it worked very well.”
A six point opening spree got the Mustangs off and running.
They led 14-7 after the first quarter and 33-20 at the half.
If Massabesic was unnerved by its unbeaten opponent, no one in the gym could tell.
“We knew we weren’t looked at very good,” said Reny. “We called ourselves, ”˜the Sleeping Giant.’ This was the game we hit it off.”
Trojans coach Eric Marston had a feeling that this had the makings of a “trap” game.
“I told the girls,” he said, “that this wasn’t just 0-3 versus 3-0. We knew they were a decent team. And anything can happen on any given night. Tonight certainly wasn’t our night by any stretch of the imagination.”
Thornton tried to keep pace with the Mustangs, but in the second stanza, that was all the Trojans could do.
They got key three-pointers from Meghan Agger and Olivia Shaw (18 points), and did crawl to within 23-19 with 3:40 left in the half, when Tori Lands hit a jump shot.
However, Massabesic promptly replied with a 10-0 run that was helped along by three pointers from Christina Fetter and Reny.
“Every time we made a little bit of a run,” said Marston, “they had an answer.”
The third period saw more of the same, as Shaw and Agger combined for all of Thornton’s 15 points in that period.
But they couldn’t use their outside shooting to loosen up any inside lanes to the basket, and the Mustangs closed out that quarter with a 9-3 run.
“We took the press off,” said Brassard, “so that we could concentrate more on the perimeter shooters. We didn’t want to allow easy shots. We did what we had to do, and made sure there was just one shot going up. To slow it down.”
The Trojans did creep to within seven points, 54-47, with 1:28 left in the game.
However, Massabesic held firm the rest of the way.
“I think it’s just going to be like this from now on,” said Reny.
—Contact Dan Hickling at 282-1535 or follow on Twitter @DanHickling.
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