Girls basketball: St. Dom’s comes from behind to beat Buckfield

BUCKFIELD — St. Dominic Academy pulled away in the fourth quarter, winning 44-39 against Buckfield despite trailing for the majority of the second and third quarters of Thursday’s girls basketball contest.

The Saints (6-1) were down by seven points at the start of the second half.

They outscored the Bucks (4-4) in each of the final two quarters, pouring in 11 points in the third and 18 in the fourth, while Buckfield scored eight in the third and nine in the fourth.

Charli Apodaca tallied 13 of her 21 points in the second half to lead St. Dom’s rally. Her last points were scored in the final second of Thursday’s game, pushing the Saints to a five-point lead instead of three.

“I didn’t really know if I should I have shot or not, but I just did because it put us up by more if anything more were to happen,” Apodaca said. “It put us up by five, so those were a good, important two points.”

Apodaca was face-guarded for the majority of the game by Buckfield sophomore Chloee Bennett.

“I think a lot of their offense runs through her, so it was our goal to just have other kids have to do a little bit more,” Bucks coach Troy Eastman said. “I think that we executed that pretty well, actually, for most of the game. It was the transitions, you know, from dealing with their pressure, the transition more than our half-court defense, our half-court defense stayed pretty good throughout the game, it was more our transitions.”

Apodaca said the defensive pressure she faced was “annoying,” and “hard to get through,” but added that her teammates helped mitigate Bennett’s defense.

“They set me screens, they gave me hand-offs; my team helped me a lot,” Apodaca said. “So, it’s good to have a good connection with the team that I have.”

Despite the win, Saints coach Brandon Rogers said he did not think the team was prepared for Thursday’s game, and he said he shoulders some of the blame. He said defensive pressure has been vital to St. Dom’s success so far this season, and it can help keep the team in the game or factor into a comeback, as it did Thursday.

“It’s something we hang our hat on, but we got to come to play,” Rogers said.

Saints senior captain Avery Gravel was a defensive force throughout the game, intercepting several Buckfield passes while also knocking down shots. Rogers said she has been a big piece to the defense this season, and a big part of the team.

“She is what makes a lot of it go, she’s a big locker room presence, so without her we’d be in trouble,” Rogers said.

Gravel said Thursday’s strong defense and victory were results of the entire team working together.

“I feel like, as a team, we all had a lot of stops, which is kind of what gave us the win,” Gravel said. “The pressuring and pressing at the end, that really helped us get through the game. I think, especially at half, we all came in, and we knew we wanted to get the win, and that was kind of what carried us through. We came together as a team.”

High pressure was the name of the game Thursday, with both defenses forcing the opposing offense away from the hoop.

Apodaca said the hardest part of playing against the Bucks was the amount of pressure their defense put on the Saints, especially on inbound passes late in the game.

“Especially at the end of the game, when we’re getting like full-on press, it’s hard to get the ball in, but I think we handled it really well,” Apodaca said.

Eastman was proud of how Buckfield’s post players performed, but he said he felt the Bucks panicked towards the end of the game and gave up crucial turnovers that resulted in key offensive opportunities for St. Dom’s.

“I think that we are trying to reestablish the belief in winning,” Eastman said. “Coming from many struggling seasons, I think they’re making slow progress, and it’s hard to learn how to win games. I think it’s just hard for kids to match — you got to match the other team’s energy.

“Usually the team that’s coming from behind is going to play kind of a little more reckless and a little more aggressive to try and turn the tide, and you have to be able to match. I think that was that was a challenge.”

Rogers said the Saints are a tight-knit group that feeds off each other’s energy.

“I don’t think I could ever sit down for the whole game,” Rogers said. “I think we all have energy that sparks through all of us, and I think that’s a big thing. It’s how we kind of rally around each other and bring that energy.”

Standouts for Buckfield, according to Eastman, were Sarae DeVoe, Bennett and Alyssa Breton. He said it really hurt the team when DeVoe got her fourth foul in the third quarter, even though the team was up by 11 at that point.

Bennett’s defense on Apodaca earned a shoutout from Rogers.

“Charlize is one of our best shooters, and they did a really good job, credit to Buckfield,” Rogers said. “They tried to remove her out of the game, so we tried to move the ball and get to the free-throw line in the second half. We got to the free-throw line a little bit more. I think that helped us quite a bit.”

Piper Croteau and Apodaca took the majority of the Saints free throws, with Apodaca making 5 of 6 attempts and Croteau hitting four. Rogers said Croteau had a lot of great drives to the rim, which helped St. Dom’s get easy buckets in the paint.

“I think the rest of the season is a matter of carrying over and learning from things like tonight or every game,” Eastman said. “You learn something whether you win or not, and I think tonight we’ve got some stuff to learn, and now we’ve got to work.”