Yarmouth’s resurgent girls’ basketball team has learned how to win close games, while the Waynflete Flyers are still figuring it out.

That was on display Saturday afternoon, when the Clippers built a lead behind strong performances from Margaret McNeil and Hope Olson, went up by as many as 19 points, then held on down the stretch before prevailing, 46-38.

Yarmouth got 17 points from Olson and 14 from McNeil as it improved to 4-1.

“We got up big, but we had to hold on,” said David Cousins, the Clippers’ first-year coach. “That’s been our story this season. We’re young, but we’re working hard.

“I couldn’t be happier with the way we’re playing, stepping in as a new coach. We deserve to be 4-1.”

Olson, who spent her first two high school seasons at Maine Girls’ Academy, scored nine first-quarter points to help Yarmouth go ahead 13-10.

“Hope brings an inside game, an outside game, she’s long and athletic and does a lot of good things,” Cousins said.

The Flyers went more than six minutes without scoring and trailed by eight late in the first half before getting a layup from promising freshman Margaret Ojut, a free throw from Emi Boedeker and a putback from Sophi Aronson to close to within 24-22 at halftime.

McNeil, who battled foul trouble throughout, caught fire in the third quarter, scoring seven points on a coast-to-coast layup, a long jump shot and a 3-pointer. That helped the Clippers close the quarter on a 15-0 run and take a 41-26 lead to the fourth quarter.

A long jumper by Katelyn D’Appolonia made it a 19-point lead with 5:20 to go, but Yarmouth made just one free throw the rest of the way. Waynflete, meanwhile, scored 10 points in a 60-second span, sparked by 3-pointers from Kilee Sherry and Boedeker, and cut the deficit to seven on a putback from Ojut with 3:06 remaining.

The Flyers didn’t score again, however.

“We kind of lost our intensity in the fourth quarter, but we’ll learn from that,” Olson said. “We have a lot of new faces this year, but it’s working pretty well. Our team chemistry is really great.”

Waynflete was paced by 12 points from Boedeker, 10 from Ojut and eight from Sherry. The Flyers fell to 0-4 but are making strides, according to first-year coach Jim Marshall.

“I have a great bunch of kids and we’ll get better and better,” Marshall said. “Third quarters are killing us, but we play with a ton of enthusiasm and energy. We have a ton of character on this team.

“We lost our first game by 26 points against Wells, then we had a very close game against Traip and we were tied at halftime against Cape. I’m very excited about where we’ll be in January and February when we put the pieces together.”

Related Stories