PARIS — Oxford Hills’ Sophia Hanscom entered the game with 14 seconds remaining in the third quarter and scored a putback at the buzzer.

That’s the kind of game it was for the Vikings in their 44-31 win over Edward Little in Class AA girls’ basketball action Tuesday night.

“All year, it’s going to be a battle for us, but we’re getting team efforts,” Oxford Hills coach Nate Pelletier said. “People stepping up. Big basket … by Sophia Hanscom, just getting a rebound putback for us, and she just went in for those 14 seconds and made a big basket for us.

“There’s a lot of things that happened, and it was really a team effort.”

The Red Eddies never could recover from senior post Jordyn Reynolds picking up two fouls in the first 86 seconds of the game.

“It’s not great for them, but great for us when their post player, one of the best players in the state, gets in foul trouble early,” Pelletier said. “But some of that was us; we were attacking them, and that was one of our goals, to get her in foul trouble, and we were able to do that.

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”Not saying it would totally different with her in there, but she definitely can rebound, she can finish, she can block those shots, and with her on the bench, it makes it a little easier for us.”

The quick fouls sent Reynolds to the bench. She only stayed there for a few minutes before re-entering the game. She didn’t pick up her third foul until midway through the second quarter, but she never could get going, finishing with only four points.

“When she’s out — she’s our go-to kid, and then she never really got into it offensively,” EL coach Craig Jipson said. “We really need 15 points from her a night. It wasn’t her only, we didn’t get what we need to get from anybody.”

The Eddies also lost one of their top reserves, Chantelle Ouellette, to an ankle injury early in the game.

Oxford Hills post Jadah Adams scored the first six points of the game — four of those coming at the free-throw line after Reynolds’ two fouls — to give the Vikings a 6-0 lead.

Edward Little had chances to catch up to Oxford Hills in the first quarter, but missed five of six free throws in the opening quarter, which ended with the Vikings leading, 13-5.

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A Grace Fontaine running jumper for the Eddies cut the deficit to 15-11 in the close minutes of the first half, but, as they did throughout the game, the Vikings responded with an 8-1 to end the quarter.

Maighread Laliberte scored a running jumper, Julia Colby hit a 3-pointer and Laliberte hit another 3. Those five points were all Laliberte scored in the game, but they were some of Oxford’s most important points of the game.

Colby, a freshman, led the Vikings with 15 points. She doused the Eddies’ next near-rally. In the fourth quarter, EL’s Jade Perry scored to make it 33-26. Colby drove the lane on the next possession for a layup that started a game-deciding 6-0 run that pushed the lead.

“I just saw a wide-open lane,” Colby said.

The Vikings were without senior starter Erin Morton for the entire second half because she hit her head hard during the first half.

Fontaine was one of the Eddies’ few offensive highlights, finishing with 17 points.

“We definitely held them to a reasonable limit, we just got to score, and we haven’t been scoring,” Jipson said. “We just got to shoot better than that. Were were (6 for 16) from the free-throw line, we missed a million layups, we got to become better offensively.

“We got to become better in a hurry, because Deering’s good and we have them on Thursday night.”

Edward Little (1-1) hosts Deering Thursday. Oxford Hills (2-0), meanwhile, hosts Portland.


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