Editor’s note: Every week, so much more happens at the basketball games we cover than we can fit into a simple game report. “And One” is our effort to bring you more from the week that was in high school hoops.

The Rangeley girls’ basketball team began its state championship defense with a 43-18 loss to Richmond on Friday.

It was a tough start for the Lakers. They struggled to even get shots off in the first half, during which they turned the ball over 21 times.

But it was only the first game of the season, and while Rangeley is a team with a lot of room to grow, coach Heidi Deery said it is one that is close to being much more competitive than it was Friday.

“I really think these guys — I know it didn’t look like it tonight — we’re not far from where we need to be,” Deery said.

The Lakers lost only two players, Blayke Morin and Maddison Egan, to graduation, but the absence of those two has created a domino effect. Veteran players such as Tasha Haley, Celia Philbrick and Sydney Royce need to take on Morin and Egan’s responsibilities, and younger players need to fill the roles this year’s veterans played on last year’s Class D state championship team.

“Last year with Maddie and Blayke, the other three had jobs to do, but it wasn’t (as major),” Deery said. “Maddie ran our defense; offensively, Blayke ran it — and Blayke helped us a lot on defense.

“So, it’s just different.”

Deery said Haley, Philbrick and Royce need to carry a bigger scoring load this season. They accounted for all 18 of Rangeley’s points Friday, and, obviously, that wasn’t enough.

Haley was the Lakers’ point guard last season, but now she needs to be a scorer, along with Philbrick and Royce.

Sophomore Brooke Egan is the new point guard, and Deery said, “I don’t think Brooke did a bad job,” against Richmond. The other starter is freshman Lauren Eastlack, who played varsity minutes as an eighth-grader.

Fortunately, the Lakers don’t play their second game until this Saturday, at Greater Portland Christian, giving them six days of practice between contests.

Deery hopes that the Rangeley players will be comfortable in their new roles by Christmas. Once they’re on track, they can start working toward being a factor in the Class D South region playoffs.

“You could see our timing was horribly off on our passing, but it’s really here (pointing to head) that we have to do the work,” Deery said. “We have to get in better shape. We’ve been working on it, and our goal is, come February, we’re going to be a team that other teams are going to not count out.”

Rookie report

Saturday’s season-opener between Oxford Hills and Lewiston marked the varsity debut of half a dozen freshmen between the two teams.

The standout in Oxford Hills’ 51-29 win was guard Julia Colby, who tied with teammates Erin Morton and Jadah Adams for a game-high 12 points.

The sister of Jayden Colby, who helped lead the Vikings to the Class AA North final as a senior last year, Julia Colby was the lone starter among the freshmen but certainly didn’t look like a rookie, playing aggressively at both ends of the floor.

“She’s played a lot of basketball, which helps,” Vikings coach Nate Pelletier said. “The whole family is a basketball family. She eats, sleeps, dreams basketball. Sundays aren’t off days for her. She gets into the gym and shoots and works on ball-handling. It’s a great asset to our team.”

Colby and Morton were very disruptive on the defensive end, pressuring Lewiston’s young backcourt and forcing turnovers that gave the Vikings early momentum.

“Julia was able to pick them a couple of times to get some easy layups, and that obviously motivates them more to play harder and harder and harder,” Pelletier said.

“I love playing with Jules. It’s awesome,” Morton said.

Freshman Cecelia Dieterich also saw time off the bench for the Vikings, scoring three points. Pelletier, who already has seven seniors in his rotation, is thrilled with the additional depth his newcomers help provide. But he also said it will take some time for everyone to click as one.

“What I like is I feel like I can put three or four or five kids in and we don’t change a lot,” Pelletier said. “It will be difficult through the season because we’ll have some ups and downs. We’ve got some seniors and we’ve got some freshmen, so there’s going to be a roller coaster at times.”

Rookie report, part 2

With six seniors and five freshmen on the roster, Lewiston has an even starker dichotomy of varsity experience.

After several years of struggles, the current senior class helped the program take a major step forward by reaching the AA North semifinals last year and is a reason there is a lot of optimism for Lewiston’s present. The current youth movement is one of the reasons there is a lot of optimism surrounding the Blue Devils’ future.

In Saturday’s debut against Oxford Hills, guard Hannah Chaput led Lewiston’s freshmen with seven points off the bench. Guard Cece Racine was the other freshman to get into the scorebook, with a 3-pointer.

All of the Blue Devils, including the freshmen, struggled with the defensive pressure Oxford Hills put on them in the loss, but coach Lynn Girouard was pleased with how they reacted to their introduction to varsity hoops.

“I think our young girls fared pretty well,” Girouard said. “They came off the bench and gave us a little spark at the end. That’s what I hoped for, to get them more varsity minutes and get them used to playing at this level. I think our future is bright. It’s the first game of the season. There are going to be growing pains.”

Sharing the wealth

The Edward Little boys’ team played well out of the gates, defeating Bangor at home, 58-42.

Jarod Norcross Plourde and Darby Shea paced the Red Eddies with 14 points apiece, and Wol Maiwen and Samatar Iman also hit double digits with 11 each.

“I think that what you saw was a pretty balanced effort,” EL coach Mike Adams said. “We have maybe four guys that could go off and score 20 points on any given night. Or we could have four or five guys that could score 14, 15 points on any given night. And I think that makes us a little more difficult to prepare for, having more weapons.”

Adams also noted that returning starters Norcross Plourde and Iman, who were relied on offensively last year, have been willing to share the ball with other scorers this year.

Placing blame

EL attempted and missed a lot of jumpers in its season-opening win. Maybe too much. Shea joked that it might not be entirely the Red Eddies’ fault.

“We took a lot of threes tonight, myself included; they didn’t fall,” Shea said. “I think they were good shots. It could be the new nets. We got to get used to them.”

Staff Writer Wil Kramlich contributed to this report.

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