The Spruce Mountain senior forward had the assignment of defending one of the league’s top players.

It was both a test, and an opportunity.

“We challenged her a little bit,” Spruce Mountain coach Chris Bessey said. “I’d put her up against anybody in our conference as far as defensive players. She didn’t make the all-defensive team. So we put it out to her as a little bit of a challenge in playing the two-time reigning (KVAC B) player of the year. I think she proved she’s a pretty good defender.”

The Phoenix defeated Maranacook 49-45 in a battle of top-seeded teams. Spruce Mountain (17-0) is ranked first in Western B while the Black Bears (14-2) are seeded first in Western C.

Barnes held Marnacook’s Christine Miller to just 13 points. All but two of those came in the second half, and most of them came in those brief moments when Barnes wasn’t guarding her.

“Just keeping tight defense on her made it quiet difficult for the rest of them because she’s really their big scorer,” Barnes said. “Keeping it away from her was really our biggest key of the game.”

Samantha Richards led the Phoenix with 19 points and eight rebounds while Emily Keene added eight. Kailee Newcomb had six while Barnes finished with five.

Elizabeth D’ Angelo paced the Black Bears with 14 points and 10 rebounds. In addition to Miller’s 13, Sarah Clough had 12, including a pair of 3’s in the second half that helped spark Maranacook’s comeback.

Barnes guarded Miller the first time the two teams played in December, a 64-42 win for the Phoenix. Miller scored 18, including becoming the third Black Bear to reach 1,000 points. Barnes tried a different approach this time around — fronting Miller instead of playing behind her. Being quick and athletic allowed Barnes to block the passing lanes and tip or steal any passes into the post. Most of Miller’s shots came from the outside and a run of six straight points in the third and a 3 late in the fourth all came when Barnes wasn’t playing her.

“The first game I was doing a lot of reaching, trying to get from behind,” Barnes said. “So with fronting her, I was able to make sure I hit her up the lane and actually got the steal instead of trying to reach.”

Maranacook managed just 10 points in the first half. The Black Bears missed their first seven shots of the game and went 5-for-24 from the floor in the first half. Though Spruce Mountain was plagued by eight turnovers in the first quarter, the Phoenix broke the lead open with 17 straight to finish the half ahead, 28-10.

“I think we just got gassed a little bit running up and down the floor,” Maranacook coach Jeannine Paradis said. “They were breaking and we were trying to break. Once we took that off a little bit and got back into a half court man, we seemed to do a little bit better.”

After a drive by the Phoenix’s Sage Hyland made it 11-10 to open the second quarter, the Black Bears didn’t score again until 5:51 remained in the third.

“That’s the most winded I’ve seen us,” said Bessey, whose team is like many others and have hardly practiced in the last week or more. “Our game is full out up and down because of our depth. We try to wear other teams down. That was as winded as I’d seen us all game.”

Maranacook was down by 23 after five straight points by Richards opened the third. Miller then scored six straight and the Black Bears produced a 12-3 run. A Clough 3 finished the third quarter with the Black Bears down 40-29, after a 7-2 surge at the end.

“We did a lot of standing around in the first half,” Paradis said. “We made adjustments in the locker room. We wanted to open things up and move the ball. They started to do that, and we started to get some of our easier shots. We started to get some momentum and into a flow.”

Baskets by Miller and D’Angelo and a 3 by Miller made it 44-38 with 4:11 left. When the Black Bears made a run, the Phoenix were able to answer and halt some of the momentum.

After a Barnes free throw, Hamblin scored off a fast break, set up by a Barnes rebound. Richard put back a rebound and the lead was back to 49-38 with 2:15 left. D’ Angelo hit a jumper and then Clough scored with 1:10 left. Miller hit a 3 with 16 seconds remaining to cut the lead to four, but the Black Bears never got the ball back.

“I thought the game plan was executed very well in the first half,” said Bessey, whose team is scheduled to play the Black Bears against Saturday in the KVAC B championship game at Cony. “We knew (Miller) was going to get her points. Our philosophy going in was to make her have to work as hard as possible to get those. She’s just that good of a player.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link