GORHAM – Having one talented inside player with height is a bonus that many girls basketball teams in the state of Maine don’t have. Having two is a mere pipe dream.

But in 5-foot-11 Lexi Merrifield and 6-foot Kristin Ross, the Gorham girls have such a luxury. And against Portland last Saturday, they showed just how dangerous a pair of towers can be.

Merrifield and Ross controlled the inside, scoring 17 and 16 points, respectively, in the Rams 72-40 blowout win in Gorham. With Gorham up 34-20 early in the third, the pair went on an 18-4 run by themselves, blowing the game wide open as the Rams (4-3) cruised to their fourth straight win.

“These two girls have come up together and them playing against each other in practice every day certainly makes each one of them better,” Gorham coach Laughn Berthiaume said. “They do a good job finding each other and when one of them is shooting the other one’s ready to rebound. It’s nice to have. I still think we can get more production out of each of them and that’s the goal in each and every game.”

Gorham tallied 46 of its points from inside the paint and also controlled the interior on the defensive end, with the Bulldogs (1-6) not registering a basket from the paint until the three-minute mark in the second. Berthiaume was happy with the way his team was able to control the tempo and play to its strength throughout,

“It’s one of our strengths, and today I thought we played to our strengths and took a lot of high percentage shots around the rim,” he said. “We haven’t done that yet, I thought today was our first game where we did that.”

Even though the Rams hadn’t played a league game in nine days, they showed no signs of rust early, opening with a 19-2 and leading 21-3 after a quarter. A strong start, always important, was of special emphasis against a Portland team that has shown an ability to hang around in games.

“In this league you really have to come out strong,” Berthiaume said. “There are a number of teams in this league that if you let them hang around long enough they’ll make plays at the end. We wanted to come out strong and the girls did with good energy.”

“Coach gave us a pep talk and told us we had to come out strong in order to keep the lead because they’re a tough, physical team,” Merrifield added. “So we came out and got a lead as quick as we could and just kept it the whole game.”

The Rams kept the pressure on in the second, building the lead to 29-4 and taking a 34-15 lead into half. After five straight points by Portland’s Cierra Burnham to start the third closed the gap to 14, Ross took over, scoring eight straight Gorham points to move the lead back up to 42-22.

It was then Merrifield’s turn, and the senior scored the Rams’ next 10 to push the lead to 28 as Gorham led 54-25 after three. The Rams then outscored the Bulldogs 18-15 in the fourth for the 32-point victory. Molly Merrifield, Lexi’s 5-foot-11 freshman sister, also scored 10 in the win, while Burnham led Portland with 17.

After opening the season with three losses, two of which Ross (second in the SMAA last season in scoring, rebounds and blocked shots last season who is averaging 18.75 points this season) missed, the Rams have now rolled off three straight wins by an average margin of 27.2 points. They’ll look to continue that run this week with trips to Thornton Academy on Wednesday and Massabesic on Friday.

“We’re starting to come around. We’ve played well in stretches and not so well in stretches,” Berthiaume said. “I thought today we did a better job of staying focused each and every play. “If we take care of the things we’re supposed to do I think we’re going to be fine, which is again making sure we’re staying focused, making sure we’re not playing to the scoreboard and that we’re trying to play to our strength of inside out.”

Gorham guard Aliza Jordan goes up for a layup over Portland’s Elizabeth Donato in the second quarter.
Gorham forward Lexi Merrifield goes up for a layup in the first quarter against Portland. Merrifield scored a team-high 17 points in the Rams’ 72-40 victory.
Gorham forward Kristin Ross tries to beat Portland’s Mariano Angelo down the floor in the second quarter. Ross scored 16 points as the Rams defeated the Bulldogs 72-40.
Gorham guard Emily Deluca drives to the basket in the second quarter against Portland.