By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

BUCKFIELD – It didn’t take long for the Buckfield girls’ basketball team to realize it was in trouble.

Facing the defending Class D champion and its smothering press, the Bucks found themselves overwhelmed before they even got close to the basket Wednesday.

Rangeley forced more than two dozen turnovers in the first half and nearly 40 overall as the unbeaten Lakers cruised to a 59-24 win over Buckfield.

Though Rangeley’s offense started slow, the defense took care of the Bucks early. When the Lakers’ offense began to click, they were off.

“We’ve struggled like that,” said Rangeley coach Heidi Deery. “Our offense comes in spurts. Sometimes we come right out and open it up right off the bat, but sometimes they don’t.”

Of course, Rangeley’s offensive woes paled in comparison to Buckfield. The Bucks (4-8) turned the ball over on their first four possessions and didn’t get a shot off until 2:32 had elapsed. The Bucks shot just 4-for-11 in the opening half and trailed 34-8.

Sarah Schrader led the Lakers (10-0) with 16 points while Rangeley’s new 1,000-point scorer, Krysteen Romero, added 12. Justine Frost-Kolva also had a dozen.

Tiffany Dunn led the Bucks with eight points.

Buckfield had begun practicing how to break the press and move the ball up the sidelines, but the Bucks struggled to execute it against the Lakers.

“The problem was we just started working on it last week,” said Buckfield coach Gary Upham. “We missed a couple practices, and obviously it didn’t work for us. With a team like this that’s aggressive and gets away with fouls like they do, our kids have to learn not to panic. They have to be more composed.”

The Lakers beat Buckfield 59-26 in the season opener. The Bucks used a man-to-man defense then and switched to a zone early this time. The traffic inside limited what Romero could do, and with Schrader out with two early fouls, the Lakers couldn’t get untracked. A Rosie LaPointe 3-pointer made it 8-2, and back-to-back shots from Frost-Kolva helped light the spark.

“It wasn’t too bad, but they hit a couple of shots,” said Upham. “You’ve got to put the hands up in their face. Up to that point, we were doing alright.”

A basket by Shayna Shackford made it 14-6 to start the second quarter, but Rangeley ran off 12 straight points and held Buckfield without a score for six minutes.

“As soon as somebody gets going, they all get going, but it usually takes someone to break the ice,” said Deery.

The lead was up to 34-8 at the half. Rangeley then outscored Buckfield 21-1 in the third quarter.