PORTLAND — The Greely Rangers can win in many ways. They have a solid inside game and a slew of players who are able to step back and hoist away from the outside. Tuesday, they won with their pressure defense as they forced 14 turnovers in the first half and ran away with a 52-24 win over the sixth-seeded Mountain Valley Falcons in a Western Maine Class B quarterfinal girls’ basketball game at the Portland Expo.

The third-seeded Rangers (17-2) led from start to finish. When Abby Young drained an early 3-pointer from the wing to put Greely up 3-0, it set the stage for the full-court press to take its toll on Mountain Valley (11-8) for the rest of the game. A few minutes later, a steal and pass from Karlee Biskup to Megan Grondin, who had a game-high 13 points, resulted in a reverse lay up and a six-point lead.

Moments later, Nikki Faietta (11 points) stole the ball near mid-court and took it the distance to put the Rangers up 12-4. And so the cycle went. Later in the half, Faietta duplicated her steal and score. Faietta and Biskup then hit back-to-back treys to close the first half with the Rangers up 33-15.

“We have two kinds of pressure,” said Faietta. “We just try to get the pressure going and gain momentum.”
Greely coach Bill Goodman wanted his team to attack down low. Instead, they crept their way outside.

“Our goal is to get it inside,” said Goodman. “We kind of got away from that. We got refocused at halftime to get back to getting the ball inside.”

When the Falcons were able to set up offensively at the Rangers’ end of the court, they were able to get some good looks at the basket, but they just weren’t able to advance the ball to begin the offense. The top scorers for the Falcons Tuesday were Emily Knapp and Lindsay Gallant and they were only able to muster up seven points each.

“We played with a lot of fear in the first half offensively,” said Falcon coach Rich Allen. “I thought we played well in the defensive end.”

The third quarter belonged to the Rangers as they opened up their lead to 46-21 behind the inside presence of Grondin. Three times, Grondin drove to the hoop and was fouled and on another drive she scored. Her aggressiveness going to the hole forced Mountain Valley pivot Ayla Allen to the bench with four fouls. With Allen on the bench, the Rangers had their way inside.

“A lot of it was second, third and fourth opportunities,” said Allen. “We just didn’t box out well.”
The deep bench of the Rangers didn’t give the Falcons any breaks. As the players continued to file onto the court, the defensive pressure came with fresh legs and a lot of energy.

The girls on the bench have energy,” said Goodman. “They might as well use it up.”

The next stop for Greely is a date with Leavitt and Goodman realizes it’ll take a better effort if his team hopes to come out victorious.

“We had a lot of open shots not go in,” said Goodman. “You can’t predict that. You just have to keep shooting.”
And keep pressing.