3 min read

GRAY — Abbey Steele did her part to put the Gray-New Gloucester girls basketball team ahead. Ella Kenney helped make sure the Patriots stayed there.

Kenney scored 17 points and had five steals, Steele added 14 points, and Gray-New Gloucester remained undefeated with a 50-42 victory over York on Tuesday night.

The Patriots, who are ranked ninth in the Varsity Maine poll, improved to 5-0.

Nya Avery scored 16 points and pulled down eight rebounds, Sophie Coite added 13 points and 12 rebounds, and Maddie Fitzgerald scored eight points for York, which fell to 2-2.

“I think we did a good job of executing, playing as a team and sharing the ball today,” Steele said. “The whole season we’ve been doing a good job of (that). It seems to be a good theme for us.”

Freshman Bryn Gilmore added 10 points for Gray-New Gloucester. Despite graduating Varsity Maine All-State player Izzy Morelli, the Patriots are averaging 57.6 points per game this season. Moving the ball and sharing the load has been a key.

Advertisement

“Scoring is our thing,” Gray-New Gloucester coach Mike Andreasen said. “If we can get into the 50s, I think we’ve got a pretty good chance.”

Steele scored 12 of her points in the first half, allowing Gray-New Gloucester to take a 26-19 lead. At one point, the Wildcats cut the deficit to 18-16 on a fast-break basket by Avery, but Gilmore and Kenney had layups and Steele hit a jumper to bump the lead to eight.

Kenney took over in the third quarter, scoring nine points as the Patriots increased their cushion to 43-27.

“I feel like we have a new person every night. It can be any of the five starters who are the leading scorer,” Kenney said. “Everyone does their part.”

It’s a team offense, and it looks like one. Many of the Patriots’ baskets came on drives and cuts to the hoop, showing their ability to move without the ball and generate high-percentage looks.

The offense hummed at its highest efficiency in the third quarter, when the Patriots made seven of their first nine attempts from the field to turn a close game into a runaway.

Advertisement

“I make a lot of jokes about the NBA, because in the NBA … it’s all this pick-and-roll stuff or just men standing in corners,” Andreasen said. “I say, ‘You’ve all got to be involved,’ because the defense won’t be engaged if you’re not engaged.”

Even with Kenney and Steele handling much of the scoring, Gilmore (three steals), Ivy Ouellette (eight rebounds) and Mallory Hardiman (six rebounds) had the ball in their hands as the Patriots either moved the ball or got rolling in transition.

“Offensively, we’re pretty solid,” Andreasen said. “We shoot the ball well, and (Kenney, Steele and Gilmore) are kind of our top scorers. If two of them are having a good night, which I thought they did tonight, we’ll be pretty good.”

York had success turning the Patriots over and getting its fast break going for much of the first half, but those chances dried up in the third quarter. The deficit reached 20, but the Wildcats kept pushing and got it back into single digits.

“I give it to the girls, they battled, there’s no quit in them,” said York coach Jess Stacy, whose team was without starting guard Piper Catanese. “They’ve got some pretty decent shooters. They move fast, for sure. They’re constantly moving, constantly making us work.”

Drew Bonifant covers sports for the Press Herald, with beats in high school football, basketball and baseball. He was previously part of the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel sports team. A New Hampshire...

Join the Conversation

Please sign into your Sun Journal account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe. Questions? Please see our FAQs.