Brunswick’s girls’ basketball team generally has no trouble putting the ball in the basket, but the Dragons really pride themselves on what they do on the defensive end.
Thursday evening, defense led to easy baskets for the reigning Class A South champions. Brunswick (12-1) forced 11 first-quarter turnovers, built a 23-4 lead in the second quarter and went on to a 52-37 victory at Deering.
The Dragons, ranked No. 3 in the state in the latest Varsity Maine poll, had a much easier time against the Rams than their previous meeting – a four-point win at home last month. Brunswick has won eight in a row since its only loss, to defending Class AA state champion Oxford Hills.
“Our defense is just getting better, and tonight we did a great job,” said Dragons senior Maddy Werner, who along with teammate Dakota Shipley scored a game-high 18 points. “We pride ourselves on playing good defense every game.”
Brunswick set the tone right out of the gate, forcing six consecutive Deering turnovers. That led to layups by Alexis Morin, Eva Harvie and Abrielle St. Pierre and an 11-4 lead after one quarter.
“We played really well on the defensive end,” said Sam Farrell, the Dragons’ longtime coach. “We attacked them because it was easier to score before they got down the court.”
Werner made a 3-pointer and scored on a putback, and Shipley drained a 3 and converted a pair of layups to make it 23-4 with under three minutes remaining in the first half.
“Turnovers have been our Achilles’ heel all year, and against a team like that, it’s a wasted opportunity to at least get shots off,” said Rams Coach Mike Murphy. “ (Brunswick) scored a flurry of points and it was a disaster.”
Deering drew within 13 points early in the second half on a layup by Natalie Santiago, but Emily Doring answered with a 3-pointer, Werner converted a three-point play, then Shipley scored on a putback.
“We communicated better today than we did last game (against Deering),” said Werner, who also had six rebounds. “We look to each other and prioritize distributing our scoring. We just have to keep up our confidence and focus on our goal, the Gold Ball. That’s our motivation.”
“We’re still working on playing a complete game,” Farrell added. “I don’t know if a coach is ever happy, but we have to be better Tuesday (against Greely) than we were today.”
Maya Gayle led Deering (5-7) with 15 points. The Rams also got 11 points from Angelina Keo and seven from Santiago.
“We have some limitations, but I love the effort from the kids,” Murphy said. “They don’t give up. I’d love to have a 20-point scorer, but we don’t. If we take care of the ball better and make quicker decisions with the ball, I think we’re a better-than-average team, but it has to be for 32 minutes.”
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