AUBURN – There was the game Heidi Deery wanted to see Monday, and there was the game she expected to see.

The Rangeley girls’ basketball coach witnessed the latter in an afternoon matinee at Central Maine Community College. Her Lakers beat Seacoast Christian 48-41, but it was the kind of struggle Deery hoped it wouldn’t be.

“We’ve had kids with the flu,” Deery said. “Chantal Carrier is out with an ankle injury, but those are excuses. We did not come mentally prepared to play. When you do that against a team like that, we’re lucky we won.”

Though Rangeley (9-1) took an early lead, the Lakers couldn’t shake Seacoast (8-3). Though East-West Conference teams typically have their way with non-conference squads, the Guardians have four returning starters and battled Richmond in a pair of double-digit losses.

Deery expected Seacoast to hustle and play hard. With some size and some shooters, the Guardians weren’t going to be an easy victory, especially after a lengthy layoff for the Lakers.

“We’re not a type of team that overlooks teams, I don’t think,” Deery said. “This was a long weekend. We haven’t had school since Wednesday. We haven’t played since last Tuesday and had a cancellation on Friday. They’re all excuses.

“But we found a way to win. I’m very happy about that.”

With Chantal Carrier seeing limited duty with a high ankle sprain, her sister led the Laker charge with 14 points. Taylor Esty chipped in 12, while Jenney Abbott added nine.

“We definitely weren’t ready to play,” Emily Carrier said. “We need to learn not to make those things a factor, but there’s a lot of players sick and hurt.”

Seacoast, ranked sixth in Western D, was led by Jenny English with 13 while Ruth Towne added 12. Kirin DeSmith and Shannon Kunz each chipped in eight.

“They’re a good team” said Deery, whose club is ranked second in Western Class D. “They hustle and never quit. I knew that was going to happen. I knew they had some height. I said they had some shooters, and they were going to hustle to the last gun.”

The Lakers faced that very scenario. Rangeley jumped out to the early 12-5 lead. Carrier and Easty paced the start with five and four points, respectively, while Seve Deery-DeRaps added a 3.

In the second, Seacoast battled back. Towne scored six points as the Guardians outscored the Lakers 14-9 and cut the deficit to 21-19 by halftime.

Emily Carrier hit a pair of 3-pointers in the third and Abbott had five points for the Lakers, which outscored Seacoast 19-9.  Esty, Blayke Morin and Chantal Carrier added hoops as the Lakers built a 40-27 lead after three.

“We knew we had to keep playing,” Emily Carrier said. “We have two-hour practices every day. We just need to play 32 minutes, and we were not doing that.”

The lead in the fourth wasn’t so comfortable. The Lakers were held to one field goal, a basket by Esty.  English and Towne combined for 10 of their team’s 14 points as Seacoast closed the gap.

“Every single time we were going to put the nail in the coffin, we gave them the hammer and said ‘You can take the nail out’ and let them make it a game again,” Deery said. “There had to be four different times that we started to pull away and we let them back in.”

Rangeley kept Seacoast at bay down the stretch from the foul line. Abbott and Letarte each hit a pair. Emily Carrier and Deery-DeRaps also added free throws.

It was a test for the Lakers, whose only loss came against top-ranked Richmond. Rangeley’s other eight wins have been by an average of 34 points. This was the only Laker victory by single digits.

“We do need to be tested,” Deery said. “There are certainly plenty of teams that can do that. You want to be tested, but you don’t want to give something up either.”

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