CAPE ELIZABETH — Freshman forward Emily Archibald posted a double-double to lead the Kennebunk girls’ basketball team to a 42-38 victory over Cape Elizabeth on Wednesday.
Archibald scored 11 points, including nine in the second half, while grabbing 14 rebounds for the Rams. She made two foul shots with 0.7 seconds left to put the game away.
“(Archibald) is excellent. She plays beyond her years,” said Kennebunk Coach Rob Sullivan.
She also had four assists.
“(I’m) just trying to find the open player and taking the shots when I have them, but trying to find the extra pass for my teammates to be successful, and myself,” said Archibald.
Kennebunk (4-1) won despite committing 26 turnovers, including nine in the first quarter.
“Cape does a great job with their 1-3-1 zone,” said Sullivan. “It’s very hard to get in a rhythm and they played that (zone) great tonight because I felt like we never got into rhythm.”
Both teams struggled early, turning it over three times each in the first two minutes of the game.
“We just turned the ball over too much,” said Cape Elizabeth Coach Chris Casterella. “We seemed to have that problem of coming out and (committing) silly turnovers, unforced turnovers. We have to find a way to clean that up.”
Kennebunk’s Alaina Schatzabel scored a game-high 17 points.
Cape Elizabeth (2-3) had a chance to win the game in the final seconds. Brooke Harvey had an open look from beyond the arc with the Capers trailing 40-38, but the shot rimmed out. The Rams gathered the defensive rebound and Archibald made her two free throws to end it.
“I had my best player, best shooter taking a wide open three,” Casterella said. “That thing went halfway in and popped out. I don’t know how it popped out.”
Harvey scored nine points for the Capers.
Kennebunk held a 12-6 lead after the first quarter. The Capers outscored the Rams 16-8 in the second to take a 22-20 lead at the half. Cape Elizabeth went on a 9-0 run in a 2:45 stretch spanning the end of the first quarter until early in the second quarter.
“(Cape Elizabeth) is a scrappy team,” said Archibald.
The Rams locked down defensively, holding the Capers to eight points in both the third and fourth quarter. Isabel Berman led Cape with 10 points.
“Our goal was to hold (Kennebunk) to under 40,” said Casterella. “We held them to 42. We didn’t do our part to get into the 40s but if we can take (Wednesday’s) effort and focus, and clean it up a bit, I like our chances. That was probably one of the most complete games we’ve played this year.”
Kennebunk made just six of its 12 free throw attempts, while Cape Elizabeth went six of 10 from the line.
“We’re going to focus on having a great practice (Thursday) and then have fun on gameday Friday,” said Sullivan.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story