The South Portland High girls basketball team is well aware that its defense is its strength. Points have been tough to come by for the Red Riots throughout the year.

The theme was no different on Monday when the Riots hosted Noble, a team they were neck-and-neck with in the Heal Point standings entering the game. In the most recent official standings, Noble had the fifth spot while South Portland was sixth. The top five teams avoid a preliminary game in next month’s Class A West tournament.

Held to just eight points in the first half, South Portland produced its lowest scoring output of the year against the Knights’ half-court zone, anchored in the middle by 6’1″ senior center Sloane Sorrell. Noble – not exactly offensively prolific either – won 33-22 to improve to 8-4.

“I thought we had the defensive effort needed to win, giving up 33 points, but we certainly couldn’t get anything going offensively,” said South Portland coach Mike Giordano, whose team dropped to 6-5.

The Riots limited Sorrell to only two points in the first half, but she got going in the third, scoring all eight of her team’s points. She finished with a game-high 15 points, scoring all but four of the Knights second-half points.

“She’s that kind of player, a first-team all-star,” Giordano said. “She can take a game over like that. We did a nice job in the first half, but players rise to the top, and she did.”

Turnovers and missed shots plagued South Portland from start to finish. Noble pressured the ball up the court a bit, but was mostly content to sit back in its zone and let the Riots make mistakes.

“Our ball movement wasn’t very good and we didn’t make good decisions,” Giordano said. “The shots weren’t falling for us at all. But credit goes to their defense. They were giving us one shot. We weren’t getting second and third opportunities.”

The Knights went up 8-4 after a quarter and Becky Creveling’s two 3-pointers in the second quarter helped extend the lead to 16-8 at halftime.

South Portland was in the bonus late in the third quarter, but couldn’t take advantage of Noble’s foul trouble until it was too late. Sorrell fouled out with 22 seconds left in the game.

“We didn’t get to the line that often,” Giordano said. “Against a zone team, you’re not going to. They did a nice job in their zone of not fouling and putting us on the line even though we were in the bonus.”

It was 24-16 entering the fourth quarter. Noble pushed the lead to 30-18. A fastbreak layup by South Portland’s Danielle DiBiase followed by a Noble turnover and a transition basket by Danielle McCusker made it 30-22 with 1:55 left, but the Riots got no closer. DiBiase had a team-high seven points.

South Portland hits the road for five of its last seven games.

“Today was a great opportunity to solidify that four or five slot (in the tournament),” Giordano said. “Now we’ve got some work to do outside of that. Ideally, if we can get to four or five, we’d be pleased.”

With McAuley twice, Portland and Deering still remaining on the schedule, the Riots have plenty of games left to grab some Heal Points. They just need to find a way to put the ball in the basket. Giordano hopes his players can fine some more confidence on offense as the tournament approaches.

“We’ve struggled to score points all year,” the coach said. “We’re the second-best defense in the league. We just need to score more points consistently.”

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