JAY – Get that junk outta here.
Jay trumped Mt. Abram’s array of gadget defenses designed to slow down Kaylie DeMillo, putting two other scorers in double digits Tuesday evening as the No. 5 Tigers trampled the No. 12 Roadrunners, 48-29, in a Western Class C girls’ basketball preliminary at the Tiger Dome.
While DeMillo concluded with her customary 21 points, Liz LeBlanc nailed three 3-pointers in the first quarter on her way to 11. Senior tri-captain Jessica LaBrecque added 10.
DeMillo, who hurdled the 1,000-point plateau midway through this, her junior season, riddled the Roadrunners with a little bit of everything: six steals, five assists and five rebounds.
“I actually enjoy it when teams play a box-and-one or a triangle-and-two against us,” said Jay coach Chris Bessey. “People think we’re a one-person team, and Kaylie gets all the press because she’s the top scorer in the Mountain Valley Conference. But we’ve definitely got other girls that can score. They just need to have the confidence.”
By winning their third straight game and avenging a 58-43 loss, the Tigers (13-6) advanced to Tuesday’s regional quarterfinals against No. 4 Winthrop. Tip-off is 7 p.m. at Augusta Civic Center.
Jay and Winthrop split during the MVC regular season, each winning on the other’s home court.
“It’s my third time going to Augusta,” said LaBrecque. “I think anyone can win it, actually. Every team had a lot of wins and losses that were close.”
Even this one wasn’t the 180-degree reversal from December’s encounter that the score indicated. Jay led by 16 in the first half before Mt. Abram (9-10) held the Tigers scoreless for a six-minute span and clawed within 30-26 late in the third quarter.
But then the Roadrunners experienced their own season-ending cold snap, enduring the last 10 minutes without a field goal.
DeMillo hit a short jumper in the paint to give Jay a six-point lead just before the end of the third period. To christen the fourth, she fed LaBrecque for a foul-line bank shot that began a traditional three-point play.
Those two hoops triggered a 15-0 run. After being contained to one field goal in each of the middle quarters, DeMillo chalked up nine points down the stretch.
“With Kaylie, you have to be right with them or have the lead. You can’t give her the ball with the lead,” said Mt. Abram coach Doug Lisherness. “The two things I was worried would happen is that we would have the first-quarter jitters and Jay would come out shooting the lights out. That’s exactly what happened, and we just couldn’t do enough to overcome that.”
Brittany York and Kenni Norton led the Roadrunners with six points apiece.
Mt. Abram shot 9-for-32 from the field and committed 25 turnovers. In addition to DeMillo’s many thefts, LaBrecque and Kristen Adams each delivered three steals.
“I think we just wanted it more this time around,” LaBrecque said. “We didn’t want to be the ones not going to Augusta.”
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