GIRLS BASKETBALL: Rams escape with win

On four separate occasions Gorham gives up a double-digit lead

against Portland, turning a blowout into a nail-biter

GORHAM – Sometimes things went Gorham’s way. Other times against Portland on Tuesday night, nothing was right. But in the end, the Rams came out on top.

It seemed like every time the Gorham girls basketball team started to build a little momentum, the Bulldogs were handed a second chance; another opportunity, just one more shot. The result was a chaotic game of high highs and low lows for the Rams (5-1), who built four separate double-digit leads over Portland (1-4), but in the end were only swept out of one-possession peril by senior captain Mia Rapolla.

On a night when the rest of her team struggled with consistency – particularly shooting free throws – Rapolla was a streaking, red-clad locomotive; charging, speeding, breaking through barriers and overcoming obstacles. When the Bulldogs twice cut the Gorham lead to three late in the fourth, Rapolla took over, going six-for-six from the line, all part of a 14-point second half explosion. She finished with 27 overall in the Rams’ 51-46 escape act.

“We go how she goes,” Gorham Head Coach Laughn Berthiaume said of Rapolla. “She is a tremendous three-sport athlete – she’s certainly a Division I lacrosse player, and she could go somewhere to play basketball, too. I think she has been in enough tense situations that she’s reached a point where she doesn’t let the moment overcome her. It’s always nice to have a go-to player, and that’s what she means for us.”

The Rams leapt out to a big lead early, putting seven on the scoreboard before the Bulldogs even hit their first shot; a 3 by junior guard Nicollete Kapothananis with 3:39 left. The Rams responded immediately, as Rapolla drove down the length of the court and was fouled as she hit a layup. Although Rapolla missed out on the three-point play, sophomore Kristin Ross made the rebound and hit the putback, lifting Gorham to an 11-3 advantage, which had widened to 18-5 by the buzzer.

“I want (Ross) to be a bigger presence,” Berthiaume said. “I think she’s a work in progress, although she is extremely talented. I do think the rebounding is going to get better, and her finishing around the hoop is going to get better. She comes into practice and she works very hard. She’s making strides, and she’s going to be a very good player.”

The second period would mark the first big letdown for the Rams. In the first six minutes, Gorham was outscored 9-2, and by the time Kapothananis hit a long two with 2:15 left, the lead was down to 20-14. Then, as she would to later, Rapolla took over, hitting long jump shots, making free throws, and disrupting the Bulldogs’ defense. Her most dynamic early moment was in the final ticks of the second, when Rapolla was once again fouled on the drive, and with 5.7 ticks left hit the extra point to widen the lead to 27-14. Once more, the Rams were in the driver’s seat.

“It really came down to rebounding,” Rapolla said. “They were animals on the boards, and later on we just couldn’t grab a board. In close games, it comes down to rebounds. You can’t allow them to get second possessions.”

And rebounding was where the Rams struggled most in the later periods. Second chances for the Bulldogs allowed Portland to cut the lead to 29-21 by the midway point of the period. Again, Gorham turned on the jets and widened things back out to as much as 37-23 with a little over two minutes remaining, as Rapolla made a steal and drove for the easy layup. But Portland scored six unanswered points to end the period, and cut the lead to 37-29 at the start of the fourth.

“I think it was a combination (of them going cold, and us getting hot),” said Portland Head Coach Jan Veinot. “We made a couple of mental slip-ups – you have got to be mentally in a game.”

The Rams appeared to recover slightly at the start of the fourth, widening things back out to 12 on a 3-pointer by freshman Jessica Rexrode a minute in that made it 41-29. But this advantage, too, would be short-lived. Portland had cut it to 41-30 before Kapothananis drove to the basket and got the roll and the foul at 5:46, deflating the cushion to eight.

The Rams turned it over almost immediately, and Portland junior guard Rebecca Smith made them pay, nailing a 3. Then with 3:45 left, junior Nyador Nguany knocked down two free throws and the Rams were suddenly clutching at a single-possession, 41-38 lead with way too much time left.

“I thought we were getting good looks, and we weren’t hitting those shots,” Berthiaume said. “I think we missed a number of easy ones around the hoop where – if we make those – it’s a much different game. I thought we defended alright, but we didn’t rebound at all. Portland really killed us in the black.”

Fifteen seconds after Nguany hit her pair, Rapolla was fouled while driving and nonchalantly bagged both opportunities, pushing the envelope back out to five. The Bulldogs once again cut things to three in the closing seconds, but the Rams were able to play keep-away, and when they finally got a foul, they picked the wrong player. With 1 second left, Rapolla knocked down both, and the Gorham bench finally exhaled.

“Coach was just telling us to get the ball and be aggressive and go to the hole,” Rapolla said. “He wanted us to stop bailing them out by taking the jumper. So all I was thinking was ‘just go to the hoop, just go to the hoop, just go to the hoop.’”

Gorham’s Mia Rapolla, left, looks to shoot past Portland’s Maura O’Conor, right, during the second half of the Rams’ 51-46 victory over the Bulldogs on Jan. 4. Rapolla accounted for over 50 percent of Gorham’s points, putting up 27 in a show-stopping performance.
Staff photo by Emory Rounds