YORK — Greely remembered.

Last season the Rangers lost three times to York, the undefeated Class A girls’ basketball champion – including in the South final. Now it’s a new year and new teams, but those who returned remembered.

Now it’s Greely with the dominant team, scoring a 72-42 road victory Wednesday night.

“We all play with a chip on our shoulder (after losing in the final last year),” said sophomore Anna DeWolfe, who led Greely with 23 points, including three 3-pointers. “We knew what we had to do to come out strong. We played our game and it came to us.

“It feels good to beat them.”

Coach Todd Flaherty, in his first season with the Rangers, said he never expected a 30-point victory.

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“We haven’t seen York play this year but we weren’t expecting this,” he said.

Greely scored the final 21 points of the first period to open a 23-4 cushion.

Five players – Moira Train, Molly Chapin, Brooke Obar, DeWolfe and Katie Fitzpatrick – hit shots on consecutive possessions after York grabbed its only lead at 4-2.

After that spurt, the Rangers had no problems.

Following a turnover by Greely to break the string of points on consecutive possessions, Chapin hit back-to-back 3s, Obar (13 points) recorded a steal and went coast-to-coast for a layup, and Emma Spoerri hit a layup off a pass from Chapin, who outhustled a York player for a loose ball, to close out the quarter.

“I don’t think any coach would have expected that result,” said York Coach Steve Freeman, also in his first year. “They are very gifted, very talented, and they have a lot of players who come off the bench and can get it done. Every one one of those kids can shoot.”

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Freeman said he played much of the first half in a zone defense to slow down the experienced Rangers. But that allowed Greely to showcase its ability to find open players.

The Rangers connected on nine 3-pointers – by five players – and had nine players score.

Fitzpatrick added nine points, and Train and Chapin chipped in with eight apiece for Greely, which pushed its lead to 47-15 at the half.

“We have all kinds of weapons,” said DeWolfe, who had 31 points in a 33-point, season-opening victory against Cape Elizabeth.

“We can go deep in our bench. We have a lot of scorers on our team.”

York graduated numerous points and plenty of leadership from last year’s state championship team, and at times it showed with turnovers and missed easy shots.

“I’ve got some young players in there. You could tell even before the game started that there were some nerves,” Freeman said.

“We got the shots we wanted; we got in the paint. We had five-foot shots but they didn’t drop.”

The Wildcats (0-2), who lost their opener 32-31 to Fryeburg Academy on a last-second 3-pointer, got 11 points from Morgan Chapman and eight points from Madigan Cogger, including a pair of 3-pointers.


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