The Yarmouth girls’ basketball team couldn’t stop Lake Region’s 3-point shooting or ability to get to the free-throw line in a Class B South quarterfinal Tuesday afternoon at the Portland Expo.
The No. 5 Lakers hit five 3-pointers in the first half and made 20 of their 29 foul shots en route to a 45-30 victory over No. 4 Yarmouth. Lake Region will play either top-seeded Gray-New Gloucester in Thursday’s semifinals.
Kristen Huntress led the Lakers (13-6) with 22 points – including two 3-pointers and 12 free throws.
“I haven’t played well when we’ve played Yarmouth, so I kind of set a goal for myself to have a good game against them,” said Huntress, a 5-foot-4 guard. “Without my teammates, I wouldn’t have been able to do that. They were finding me when I was open, and they were letting me hit those open shots.”
Cory Langenbach scored 12 points – all on 3-pointers – for Yarmouth (12-7), which was held to six points in the second and third quarters combined.
“We were really looking to use our post players because they’re a smaller team, and we were hoping to take advantage of that,” Yarmouth Coach Christina Strong said. “But we really could not get into a rhythm.”
Yarmouth swept Lake Region in the regular season by scores of 28-24 (on Dec. 13) and 32-23 (on Feb. 7). This time, Yarmouth grabbed an early 9-2 lead with the help of back-to-back 3s by Langenbach.
“We played them twice during the year, and we shot 16 percent from the floor,” Lake Region Coach Paul True said. “So, really, this was just about execution, making our shots and playing with confidence. I thought our kids did a great job of that tonight.”
Lake Region answered with a six-point run, capped by a Huntress 3-pointer. After an Alison Clark field goal for the Clippers, Lake Region’s Chandler True hit a 3-pointer in the final 20 seconds of the quarter to tie the score at 11-11.
From that point on, Yarmouth’s shots wouldn’t fall. Lake Region outscored Yarmouth 11-4 in the second quarter. All but two of those Lake Region points came from 3-pointers, with Melissa Bonenfant notching two and Huntress sinking one. The Lakers entered halftime up 22-15.
“In first half – after those two shots by Cory (Langenbach) – we went a little cold,” Strong said. “It was a big-time momentum game and I felt like, once it swung, it never came back.”
The second half featured more of the same. The Lakers held Yarmouth to two points in third quarter while Lake Region stretched its lead to 33-17.
“Everything went right,” Huntress said. “We spent so much time working on our game – we were prepared, and we went out and showed it.”
Taylor Vortherms can be contacted at 791-6417 or:
tvortherms@pressherald.com
Twitter: TaylorVortherms
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