GORHAM — If your offense isn’t working, said Laughn Berthiaume, then your defense better be.

And that’s what happened Thursday night as Berthiaume’s Gorham High girls’ basketball team pulled away for a 44-31 victory over South Portland. The Rams held the Red Riots to just five points in the fourth quarter and scored the game’s final seven points at the foul line.

Michelle Rowe and Kristen Curley combined to go 7 for 8 in the last 81 seconds.

“The offense wasn’t pretty,” said Berthiaume. “But defensively, that’s always going to be there. That’s all an effort thing. The girls were up for this game. We certainly struggled on the offensive end so the defense had to be there.”

Both teams have some of the top offensive players in Class AA South. But in this game, nothing came easy.

Gorham, which played the final 2:19 without star forward Emily Esposito after she fouled out while setting a screen, forced 21 South Portland turnovers and never let the Red Riots get into any sort of rhythm.

“We just couldn’t get untracked,” said Riots Coach Lynne Hasson. “I thought we were really tentative.”

The victory improved Gorham to 2-0 while South Portland, which averaged 57.5 points in its first two games, dropped to 2-1.

This was a relatively tight game throughout and Gorham held only a four-point lead entering the fourth quarter.

With 6:21 left, Gorham’s Kaylea Lundin hit an open 3-pointer from the left wing to make it 35-28. Then, following a South Portland miss, Esposito hit a step-back jumper in the lane to make it 37-28. But the Rams wouldn’t score again until Rowe hit her first foul shot with 1:21 left.

South Portland had chances. Maggie Whitmore hit a jumper to pull the Riots within 37-30, but they had turnovers on their next two possessions. After Eva Mazur hit a foul shot with 2:44 left to make it 37-31 – and then Esposito fouled out – the Riots committed two more turnovers and then had to start fouling.

Rowe went to the line first and hit the 1 of 2 free throws. The Riots missed a shot, Rowe got the rebound and was fouled again. This time she hit both, with 1:00 left, and it was 40-31.

“I just knew I had to make the first one, because that would give me the confidence to make the second one,” said Rowe. “And I knew I needed at least one to help the team.”

Curley was then fouled twice in the final 36 seconds and hit all four free throws to seal the victory.

“That’s what they needed to do,” said Hasson. “That’s how you take a four-point game and make it 11. You hit your foul shots.”

It was a big win for the Rams, who held on without Esposito, their Villanova-bound all-state player.

“I’m really proud of our team for pulling that off,” said Lundin, who led Gorham with 13 points while Esposito had 12. “We really pulled it together toward the end and showed that we are able to fight, even when Emily fouls out, we can still make it work.

“We have a lot of really talented players and losing one is definitely detrimental but we have four others who are capable of stepping up.”

Related Stories