Sierra Carson drives Oxford Hills past Lewiston

LEWISTON — Sierra Carson outscored Lewiston by herself in the first quarter.

The Oxford Hills junior guard nearly finished the game with as many points as the Blue Devils in the Vikings’ 55-31 Class AA North girls basketball road win at Coach Masse Court on Wednesday.

Carson scored 14 points — mostly on fast breaks or dribble-drives in the half-court — in the first period to boost the Vikings to a 14-11 lead.

Lewiston (4-6), though, controlled most of the opening quarter and didn’t allow Oxford Hills (10-0) to take a lead until two minutes remained.

“In the first minute or so we were slow and everyone wasn’t fully in it,” Carson said. “When they called a timeout, (Oxford Hills coach Nate) Pelletier got us going. We pushed the tempo, and when we do that it’s harder for teams to stop us, and we built up on that. I prefer playing in transition.”

With 3:30 left in the first, Lewiston’s Masya Way grabbed an offensive rebound and made a quick pass to Koral Morin for a 3-pointer that put the Blue Devils ahead 9-6.

Carson, who finished the game with 27 points, quickly retaliated with back-to-back three-point plays, the second giving the Vikings their first lead, 12-9.

“That’s just Sierra Carson,” Pelletier said. “Sometimes you just sit back and watch her play. Every game it gets a little better and a little better. When she is rolling, we are going to really start to roll. I didn’t think everyone on the team was cooking today, but it was her day and she just took over.”

Carson kept rolling in the second quarter. She added six more points, including a steal and coast-to-coast layup that made the lead 21-16 with about five minutes remaining, giving her 20 in the first half.

Oxford Hills’ lead grew to 28-16 by halftime.

“In the first half, we were stuck on 16 points forever,” Lewiston coach Craig Jipson said. “We only took maybe two bad shots all game, we just need to finish.”

Aiwen Maiwen helped Lewiston stick around in the third quarter. Maiwen scored six of her team-high 12 points and made a couple of steals as the Blue Devils outscored the Vikings 9-8 to cut the deficit to 36-25 heading into the fourth.

“Aiwen kept us in it,” Jipson said. “She hasn’t been a huge scorer for us this year but did well tonight. We need our kids to be able to shoot consistently. … I thought Aiwen, when she plays within herself, is an excellent post player. She plays hard and is a good rebounder.”

Carson didn’t score in the third, and Pelletier put the blame on himself.

“It’s really on me,” Pelletier said. “In the third I need to find ways to get her the ball more. I don’t think she scored in the third after scoring 20 in the first half. That’s on me and I need to work on that.”

Molly Corbett (nine points) hit one of her three 3-pointers in the third, and Gabbie Tibbetts added a 3 to help Oxford Hills maintain most of their lead.

Lewiston kept the game closer Wednesday that in its first meeting with Oxford Hills, a 70-40 loss on Dec. 15 — particularly in the first three quarters.

“I thought defensively we played hard,” Jipson said. “For us to hold them to 36 at the end of three quarters, 12 a quarter, we’ll take that. We were getting it done, there’s just some intimidation there, and we need to get beyond that to play with the top teams.”

Oxford Hills finally pulled away in the fourth quarter. Carson added seven more points and Ella Pelletier scored all five of her points as the Vikings outscored the Blue Devils 19-6.

While Carson stood out the most with her 27 points, Nate Pelletier also was excited about the play of Oxford Hills’ reserve players.

“We always preach to our sixth, seventh, eighth kids coming off the bench to bring energy and they did that today,” Pelletier said. “We got in foul trouble at one point and I give them a lot of credit today for bringing the energy when we needed it.”