The Telstar girls are going to Augusta for the first time.
By Kevin Mills
Staff Writer

BETHEL- Aaron Bean and his Telstar girls’ basketball team wanted to abide by the saying “Act like you’ve been there before.”

There was only one hitch.

“What if you’ve never been there before?” Bean asked one of the school’s ski coaches. “He told me every coach has been in your position before. So you’ve got to start somewhere.”

Telstar rectified that situation Tuesday night with a 58-49 Western Class C preliminary win over Livermore Falls. The Rebels not only hosted their first playoff game but also made good on their hopes in delivering a long-overdue playoff win and gained a quarterfinal berth at the Augusta Civic Center.

“It’s the best feeling ever,” said senior forward Krystle Gould, who was on the team two years ago that lost to the Andies in the final seconds of a prelim game. “When we lost to them my sophomore year, I’d never been so sad, but this is the best feeling I’ve ever had.”

Third-seeded Telstar (12-6) broke open a tie game in the second quarter and earned a third game against fifth-ranked Jay in Tuesday’s quarterfinal.

Gould was immense inside, scoring 14 points and grabbing eight rebounds.

“Krystle played a monster game inside,” said Bean. “She can be prone to sometimes not making the bunnies, but she made them tonight and made everyone of them count.”

Chea Davis was a big help in the paint and had 14 points from inside and from the perimeter. Liz Rosenberg and Abby Wentworth contributed to Telstar’s balance with 13 and 10 points respectively. Livermore Falls got 14 from Taryn Flagg and 10 from Jenika Kelley.

“I didn’t think we came out the way we should have,” said Andies coach Ken Jones, whose club lost two hard-fought games with Telstar in the regular season. “I don’t know why. We didn’t seem to have that pep.”

After a first quarter of jitters for both clubs ended with a 15-15 tie, Telstar got rolling in the second quarter. The Rebels press gave Livermore Falls (5-14) fits and Telstar was able to take the Andies inside game away, leaving few options.

“We struggled with the post offense early on and in the last month we’ve been harping on it and harping on it,” said Bean. “We’ve been working on it and got that straightened out.”

Meanwhile, the Rebels offense began to click. While Gould controlled the inside, Rosenberg, Wentworth, Davis and Jillian Kimball all chipped in from the outside. Telstar also got some fine work off the bench in the second quarter by Kelsey Dole and Lindsay Hart. The Rebels moved the ball effectively and set themselves up for quality shots, inside and out.

“We didn’t have very many turnovers,” said Bean. “I think in the first quarter we’re able to get some easy baskets off the press and that settled us right down. We took care of the ball tonight.”

A 7-1 spurt to start the second had Telstar in the lead quickly. Three points from Rosenberg and hoops by Davis and Wentworth made it 22-16. The Andies stayed within a half dozen for much of the quarter but a fast break basket by Rosenberg and two free throws from Davis had the lead up to 34-24.

“We didn’t allow ourselves more than one chance on a shot sometimes, and we had 22 turnovers,” said Jones.

Six straight points from Gould, Davis and Rosenberg had the lead up 16 early in the third. The lead reached as many as 20, but Livermore Falls chipped away late and had a 9-0 run in the final minutes to trim the lead.

“We’ve just tried to take small steps, and we focused on taking one step at a time,” said Gould. “This is the biggest step ever.”

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