Deering 50

South Portland 30

The Deering girls’ basketball team turned a close game into a rout as the Rams used a second half surge to pull away from South Portland to win their West A quarterfinal, 50-30, on Friday evening at the Portland Expo.

Deering began the game with five straight points from Andrea Mailo before the Riots answered with five straight from Libby King, Kelsey Flaherty and Christina Aceto to tie the game.

In the second quarter, the Riots took their first lead of the game on a jumper from Flaherty. She led the Riots with eight points. Deering reclaimed the lead for good when Sarah DeRoche hit a jumper late in the second period and the Rams never trailed again. At the half, the Rams led 21-16.

“We hung with them in the first half,” said South Portland coach Mike Giordano. “I thought they shot the ball well. We missed some free throws in the first half. We were four for 12 or something. If we made a few more free throws it could have been a two-point game instead of a five-point game.”

The Rams ended the third quarter with a 10-2 run and a 34-21 lead with just eight minutes to play.

“Great perimeter defense by them made us struggle to get into what we wanted to do offensively,” said Giordano. “They rebounded really well and limited us to one shot. It was certainly the Rams night tonight.

“They shot the ball well all night,” Giordano said of Deering. “They just got open looks and they stuck them. It kind of put us on our heels a little bit. Any time we’d play defense for 15 or 20 seconds they’d stick a shot and that just deflates you.”

The Rams hit nine out of their 13 free throws in the fourth.

“I thought it was going to be close,” said Deering coach Mike D’Andrea. “That’s a competitive group. They’re well coached, they’re tough kids. They know how to win, they’ve been doing it all season long. So I thought we were going to go down to the wire.”

The Riots finished the year an impressive 15-3 in the regular season and earned the fourth seed in the tournament.

“I told the kids ‘when you look back in a little bit you’ll be pleased,'” said Giordano. “We went 15-3 in such a tough league. I’m pleased with the kids’ efforts. Its a little sour tonight, but we’ll get over it.”

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