JAY — The way the first three quarters went Saturday night, it was obvious that offense wasn’t at a premium.

Whichever won the first meeting between Jay and Livermore Falls was going to need an offensive spurt of some kind to alter the defensive stalemate.

Playing on weary legs and little rest, the Andies found that sudden surge of scoring in the fourth quarter. Livermore Falls broke open the lead that held up in a 34-27 win over the Tigers.

“This is huge,” said Livermore coach Mark Simpson, whose team has beaten Jay on opening night two consecutive years. This is big for us. This is going to get inside their heads and give them some confidence.”

The Andies ran off eight straight points to start the fourth and built a 28-21 lead. The Tigers got as close as six points twice, but Livermore finished the job with free throws down the stretch.

“Beating Jay is always a good confidence boost,” said Livermore forward Marissa Welch, who led the Andies with 14 points, including eight in the fourth quarter. “It just pumps us up for the rest of the season.”

The Andies also got seven points from Annika Durrell and five each from Kathryn Ventrella and Megan Therrien. Micaela Baron added three points and did a nice job defensively and on the boards. Livermore Falls played with just seven players but certainly didn’t wilt in the end.

“They’re in shape,” said Simpson. “They don’t think they’re in shape, but I keep telling them that if we’re not in shape, our legs won’t be there in the fourth quarter. Our legs were there.”

Jay got 12 from Alexis Blodgett and 10 from Beth Moore. The Tigers struggled in the fourth, hitting just 2-of-8 shots from the floor. Jay also hit just three of 11 free throws in the game.

“We live and die by defense,” Simpson said. “Our defense just shut them down. They didn’t know what to do. Our defense was just there all the time.”

Jay led going into the fourth, 21-20. Moore put them in the lead with a lead rebound in the third. The Andies took the lead back with two free throws from Welch. Then she scored inside on a pass from Durrell to make it 24-21.

Jay had the ball but lost possession on a technical foul call for a player out of bounds. Ventrella hit two free throws and the Andies maintained possession of the ball.

“They had a three-point lead, and we had the ball out of bounds,” said Jay coach Chris Bessey. “We got a technical called on us because our player didn’t come inbounds quick enough. They make both foul shots and that’s a big turnaround.

“When it’s tough to score as it is, it’s a one possession game, you have the ball and it’s taken away from you, to me, that’s just questionable.”

Jay never really recovered. Welch scored two more in the post and had the lead up to 30-22 with 4:52 left.

“We just moved the ball around a lot,” said Welch, who did a nice job getting into position in the post for opportunities in the fourth. “We just did a good job as a team.”

Jay got a free throw from Alannah White but didn’t get a field goal until Moore scored with 3:53 left to make it 30-24. Therrien scored on a nice drive and later added a free throw to pad the lead.

Though the game had a great atmosphere with the two rivals meeting on opening night, the coaches would have preferred a later meeting. The teams used to meet later in December.

“It’s really unfair to have a Jay-Livermore game first,” said Bessey. “You have opening game jitters, and then you have Jay-Livermore, it’s kind of unfair for both kids. They’ve been fortunate enough the last two years to be able to pull it off, and we haven’t.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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