PORTLAND — The Brunswick Dragons had trouble answering a high-powered Greely offense, falling to the Rangers, 67-46, on Friday in girls high school basketball action.
Last season, Greely halted the Dragons’ unbeaten season in the Class A South regional final. It was the second consecutive meeting in the final for Brunswick and Greely, with the Dragons taking the 2017 meeting.
It set the stage for an important regular-season match-up Friday at the Portland Expo. The Rangers proved to be a hurdle once again for the previously unbeaten Dragons.
Katie Fitzpatrick of Greely tries to get a shot off between tight defense from Emily Larochelle, left, and Alexis Guptill of Brunswick. (Derek Davis / Portland Press Herald)
“We haven’t had a lot adversity over the last few years except this Greely team,” said Brunswick ( coach Sam Farrell. “You saw that early on. We just came out a little shell-shocked.”
Greely started fast, jumping out to a 7-0 lead less than a minute into the game. Camille Clement drained a 3-pointer off the opening tip. Greely’s Anna DeWolfe took over from there, adding two points at the foul line and then pulling up for a jumper in the lane. Farrell called a timeout to try to stop the run.
Out of the timeout, Clement hit another trey to extend the lead to 10. After another bucket from DeWolfe, Brunswick ended the 12-0 run by going inside to Alexis Guptill, who reached over a defender for layup. Guptill scored four of the Dragons’ five points in the opening quarter. DeWolfe scored 10 of her game-high 25 points in the first quarter for the Rangers.
“We got off to a good start, which we were looking to do and lucky to hit a couple big shots early,” said Greely coach Todd Flaherty. Our top scorers did well, but the other girls that came off the bench were contributors with defense and rebounding. They put the ball in the basket a little bit too.”
Greely carried the hot start into the second quarter. DeWolfe opened the scoring with a long-range 3-pointer. Guptill answered for Brunswick, driving to the hoop for two, but the Rangers’ quick defense made it difficult for the Dragons to find offense early. DeWolfe added a pair of easy buckets off steals.
“We forced some passes early on that we shouldn’t throw,” said Farrell. “We don’t throw skip passes in practice and we seemed to throw about 15 in the first half.”
Julia Martel of Greely (12) grabs an offensive rebound ahead of Logan Brown of Brunswick (25) during Friday’s Class A South girls basketball game at the Portland Expo. The Rangers downed the Dragons, 67-46. (Derek Davis / Portland Press Herald)
Brunswick took another timeout with 3:49 remaining in the half, facing a 34-9 deficit. Guptill added another left-handed layup inside. Logan Brown followed with a trey from the corner as the Dragons started to get better offensive possessions, but trailed 42-15 at the half.
Brunswick continued the attack from beyond the arc to start the third quarter. Brown hit another trey, followed by Charlotte MacMillan burying a three-pointer from the wing.
The Rangers responded to MacMillan’s three by going on an 8-0 run, capped off by another trey from Clement to push the lead to 54-21.
Emily Larochelle added three for the Dragons to stop the run, but the deficit was 59-26 heading into the final quarter.
Brunswick finished with a strong fourth quarter, outscoring the Rangers, 20-8. MacMillan led the charge for the Dragons with nine points in the final quarter.
“I loved what I saw from the two seniors out there at the end,” said Farrell. Charlotte and Emily did a great job. Emily’s our best rebounder and she’s not nearly our biggest kid, and Charlotte decided to take the game over on the offensive end which she can do.”
“We just realized you have to play basketball,” said MacMillan. “It was all in our heads.”
MacMillan finished with 14 points for Brunswick, while Guptill added 12.
The Dragons, 5-1, will hope to carry the positives into their next game Wednesday at home against Camden Hills (6:30 p.m.), and into another potential meeting with Greely.
“It’s always a big game against Greely,” said MacMillan. We always look forward to it. We’ll just try our hardest and we’ll prepare for playoffs next time we see them hopefully.”
Greely improved to 6-0. Clement added 24 points for the Rangers.
“We’ll see them again probably,” said Flaherty. “We did this a couple years ago. We had a fairly comfortable regular season win and they beat us in the regional final so we’re not going to take Brunswick lightly.”
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
