GRAY — Franny Ramsdell’s seven straight points to end the first half turned a deficit into a lead for Wells, which then pulled away before needing to hold on to a 49-45 girls basketball victory at Gray-New Gloucester on Tuesday. 

Ramsdell completed a four-point play after getting fouled on a successful 3-point shot with 42.1 seconds remaining in the second quarter, then drained another 3 with five seconds left before halftime to give the Warriors a 23-20 advantage at intermission, after they trailed for much of the first 15 minutes. 

“What corresponded at the end of the half hurt because we had a six-point lead (18-12), and then all of a sudden we’re down three,” Patriots coach Mike Andreasen said. “And that carried into the second half, and then they just kind of carried it to a bigger lead.

“And the fact that we came back, I’ll give the kids credit. We dug in there. We could have got blown out. We didn’t. We came back, got the thing to one, just couldn’t get the lead. It just wasn’t meant to be.” 

Ramsdell hit her third 3 of the game with just over a minute left in the third to give Wells a 37-27 lead, but Jordan Grant’s old-fashioned three-point play 45 seconds into the fourth cut it to 37-36. 

The Warriors (9-6) denied Grant’s chance at reaching the 1,000-career-point milestone, after she entered the game 22 points shy. She finished with a team-high 13 before fouling out with 3:27 left and the Patriots trailing by three points. 

“(Stopping Grant) was our game plan coming in. Mike told me before the game, but it had nothing to do with that,” Wells coach Don Abbott said. “That’s how we played them in the tournament last year, and (Eliza) Hotham made a bunch of shots, and it looked like it was going to be deja vu all over again. She hit a couple big shots, but (Grant) is a great player and we try and take away what the other team does well.

“I don’t know how many she ended up with, but I think we’re happy with the way it worked out.” 

Hotham scored 10 first-half points as the Patriots (10-5) took early control of the game. She was held scoreless in the second half and also fouled out in the fourth. 

“It’s hard, especially with Jordy on the bench at the end, and Eliza on the bench, to try to win the game,” Andreasen said. 

The Patriots took a 13-10 lead after one quarter, as Grant was scoreless on only one shot attempt. She had a chance at a layup in the closing seconds but converted after the buzzer. 

Her first basket came 40 seconds into the second quarter, but she didn’t score again in the first half. 

“She ran into kind of a buzzsaw in Grace Ramsdell,” Andreasen said. 

Ramsdell, the leading rebounder in the Western Maine Conference, anchored a disciplined zone defense that stifled Grant. 

“Grace is a competitor, and she likes to play against the best, and so I do think that was a challenge that she accepted,” Abbott said. 

Grace Ramsdell finished with nine points, with seven coming in the first half. Mallory Aromando added 11. 

Franny Ramsdell scored a game-high 23 points. 

“I just think she was rushing a little bit in the first quarter,” Abbott said. “… So I talked to her and I just said, ‘Look, this is one of these games where you got to look for your jump shot a little more, you got to look for your pull-up.'” 

Andreasen said Franny Ramsdell was a difference-maker.

“They were just better than us tonight. They executed,” Andreasen said. “Franny Ramsdell, she’s a wonderful player. And the fact that we had a chance to win that game, when we were down 10, and then got it back to one, our kids battled. Our kids battled hard. You know, ultimately it came down to their kids just seeming to be a little more savvy in late situations than we were.” 

“It was all layups and free throws at the end for us, and I think that was key,” Abbott said. 

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