Talent was never the issue for the South Portland girls basketball team. Nor was there a doubt the Red Riots would be among the Class AA South leaders by season’s end.
The question for the Red Riots was whether they were ready to handle the heightened stakes and brighter lights of the playoffs. On Saturday, they gave a resounding answer.
Sophomore Annie Whitmore scored 18 points while leading a record-setting shooting attack, fellow sophomore Mya Lawrence scored 11 and senior Emma Travis added 10, and top-seeded South Portland defeated No. 2 Gorham, 50-37, in the Class AA South final.
It’s the first regional title for the Red Riots (17-3) since 2020, when they ended up losing to Oxford Hills in the state championship game, and they will pursue their first state title since 1986 against Cheverus on Saturday.
“I remember coming down, watching South Portland lose to Gorham as a little girl. I remember sitting in these stands,” said Travis, a senior captain. “It’s super full circle to come back and be able to beat them.”
The Red Riots were red hot Saturday, knocking down a Class AA South tournament record eight 3-pointers. South Portland reached the record with 4:29 to go in the third quarter, when a Lawrence 3-pointer gave the Red Riots a 38-15 lead on Gorham (16-4).
“I know we have good shooters,” South Portland coach Brianne Maloney said. “Mya had a tough one last game, but we’ve never told her no. So it was just a matter of time before her shots start falling. And people have seen what Annie can do.”
What Whitmore did was hit four 3s, tying an AA South single-game tournament record shared by three players, including her sister, Maggie. Two came from well behind the line on back-to-back possessions, putting South Portland up 27-10. Lawrence made three 3s — including one from NBA range — while Caleigh Corcoran added the other.
Whitmore laughed when asked if she had ever shot that well before.
“I don’t really think so,” she answered. “With this big crowd, it helps a lot, too, with everyone cheering. … This is really just a dream come true.”
South Portland fell in the regional semifinals last year as a No. 2 seed, scoring only 31 points in a loss to Scarborough, but those struggles were long forgotten Saturday. The Red Riots shot 11 for 21 with six 3s in the first half while building a 30-15 lead, then went on an 8-0 run to put the game out of reach.
“I think getting that last win here (in the semifinals against Scarborough) really took the monkey off the back,” Maloney said. “We can win here, they did it once, you’re back on the same floor you already won on. … Now we just go out and play basketball.”
Whitmore agreed.
“We knew that we have all the physical aspects, we just had to work on the mental part of it,” Whitmore said. “We did exactly that tonight.”
Zoe Dellinger scored 11 points while Julia Reed and Vanessa Walker had nine points apiece to lead Gorham, which was seeking its fourth straight trip to the state championship game.
“The shots they made at the beginning really changed what we had to try to do in the second half,” Gorham coach Laughn Berthiaume said. “And they were deep 3s. When they’re making some deep 3s, it kind of changed the game.”
Berthiaume took pride in Gorham’s second half, when the Rams cut a 23-point deficit to 14 at 47-33 on a Dellinger 3 with 3:45 to play.
“We decided in the second half that if we were going down, we were going to go down swinging,” he said. “I thought my kids scrapped and did a good job competing. The gap was just a little bit too much.”
The shooting display stole the show, but Maloney took more satisfaction in the Red Riots’ defense — particularly Lawrence’s guarding of Reed, one of the SMAA’s best offensive players.
“Reed’s a great player, she got the South AA offensive player (of the year award) for a reason, and Mya Lawrence made it tough for her tonight,” Maloney said. “They want to run that offense with the ball in her hands, and she was right there every catch, every time she got rid of the ball. She caused issues for them.”
Lawrence said her performance, both offensively and defensively, was a satisfying bounce-back after she admittedly struggled in the semifinals.
“I was just trying to prove something to everyone watching,” she said. “I think I did that today.”
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