SOUTH PARIS – Maybe it was just overcoming the playoff jitters or perhaps it took time to get comfortable on the offensive end of the court. But maybe, just maybe, it was a successful “win one for the Jipper” halftime speech by assistant coach Shane Slicer.
Whatever the case, the seventh-seeded Oxford Hills Vikings came out scorching offensively at the start of the second half Wednesday night. They broke open a halftime tie by scoring on their first four possessions and then salted the game away with a perfect 11-for-11 performance from the charity stripe in the fourth to defeat the No. 10 Brunswick Dragons 41-28 in an Eastern Class A girls basketball prelim.
Slicer coaches the junior varsity and was filling in for head coach Craig Jipson, who was ill and could not make the game.
“I found out around quarter of two today,” said Slicer. “I knew he was sick, but I didn’t know how bad.”
With the game knotted at 14-14 at the intermission, the Vikings (14-5) came out of the locker room looking like a different team from the one in the first half.
“We knew we had to step it up,” said junior guard Kelsey Pelletier. “I really got fired up at halftime. I wanted to do it for the seniors and my coach who was sick. We came out fired up.”
Pelletier opened the scoring in the third by nailing a 3-pointer from the wing. Seconds later, Annie Foster drove to the hoop and Oxford Hills led 19-14. Brunswick’s Danyel Cousins answered with a basket off an inbounds play underneath. Her bucket was the first field goal for the Dragons (7-12) since the late stages of the first quarter.
A baseline hoop by Allison Fox and an eight-foot pull-up jumper by Pelletier put the Vikings up 23-18. The Dragons would get no closer the rest of the way.
“They sat back in the 3-2 zone and we didn’t shoot well,” said Slicer. “It took us a while to get going. We came out in the second half more relaxed. In the first half we didn’t play well at all.”
The Dragons scored 12 points in the first quarter as their passes from the perimeter continually found the targets inside the paint. Emily Pollock hit a pair of baskets and both Lindsay Hammond and Kate Ross knocked home foul-line jumpers to build a 12-6 lead after one quarter. But the scoring went south from there as the Dragons were limited to seven points over the next two quarters. Not only did they struggle from the field, but they hit just five of their 17 free throws.
“We had our opportunities,” said Brunswick coach Rita O’Connor. “We didn’t make good decisions on a few possessions and we didn’t hit our free throws. That hurts.”
While the Dragons were missing their foul shots, Oxford Hills was making them. The Viking hit their final 12 in a row from the line, including six by freshman point guard Kari Pelletier (game-high 13 points) and four by back-up guard Terry Bunce.
“That was important for us,” Slicer said on the Vikings’ free throw shooting down the stretch. “They were still in the game when they started fouling.”
The victory earns a spot for the Vikings in Saturday’s quarterfinal round at Bangor versus second-seeded Skowhegan.
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