SANFORD — The playoffs are coming, and the games are getting bigger. And that makes the Gorham girls basketball team feel right at home.
Vanessa Walker scored 13 points, Logan Doughty added 14 and 11 rebounds, and the Rams earned a key late-season 47-33 win over Sanford on Tuesday, in a matchup between two of the top three teams in Class AA South. Gorham improved to 14-3 and will play South Portland on Thursday with the No. 1 seed in AA South at stake. South Portland won the first game, 52-33.
“I think we’ve been building, and we’re just trying to be consistent so it’s not eight minutes or a half. We’re trying to put 32 minutes together,” Gorham coach Laughn Berthiaume said. “I think that’s what it’s more about, being consistent over the course of a game.”
Mollie Puffer had 11 points and 12 rebounds for Sanford (12-5). Paige Sevigny added 10 points.
Coming up clutch
Gorham had shown some shakiness leading up to Tuesday, dropping two of its previous four games. But the Rams are three-time defending AA South champions for a reason, and with a chance to finish first in the region at stake, they showed their big-game moxie again.
“I feel like Coach makes it clear that now is the time to execute our stuff, and not just keep running through it at practice,” said senior guard Julia Reed, who added seven points. “It’s time to make it count.”
Berthiaume said it’s not so much about a collective Gorham clutch gene as much as it is an appreciation for winning the games within the game that loom large at playoff time — such as winning the rebounding battle, which the Rams did by a 39-35 margin.
“We’re looking to try to simplify things,” he said. “Getting into playoffs, it’s winning the little battles all over the floor. … If we can rebound and close some driving lanes, that’s usually when we’re at our best.”
Turning point
It helps when the opponent loses its shooting feel, and late in the second quarter that’s what happened. Sanford led 19-14 after a Puffer 3-pointer with 2:48 left in the half, but missed its final five attempts and Gorham went 4 for 4 from the floor, with six points coming from Doughty, to take a 22-19 lead.
A Puffer putback narrowed the deficit to 34-31 with 6:32 to play, but Gorham’s 10-0 run put the game out of reach. The Rams went 9 for 22 from the field (41%) in the second half, and the Spartans were 5 for 26 (19%).
Key player
Doughty helped deliver that rebounding edge for the Rams, battling Puffer – the leading AA South rebounder – throughout the night. Berthiaume said toughness is a key in the postseason, and Doughty, a 5-9 junior and converted guard, is filling a gritty role for Gorham.
“Rebounding is a big thing for our team, because we push the ball up the court really well when we rebound, and that’s how we score the majority of our points in some games,” Doughty said. “It’s been a lot different this year, learning a whole new position, but I think I’m starting to get it now.”
They said it
“We didn’t compete the way that I think we can. I think we also have something to prove to ourselves.” — Laughn Berthiaume, on the South Portland rematch,
“They’ve had our number over the years. They’re playoff-tested. They just come ready to play, and understand that you have to be at a different level when it’s playoff time. … At some point, we have to understand that that’s where we need to be.” — Sanford coach Rossie Kearson
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