FREEPORT

At the beginning of the season, first-year Richmond High School girls basketball coach Mike Ladner said it was going to take defense and quick transition for his young team to be successful, and the Bobcats (3-1) did exactly that on Thursday night, coming out with a 30- 16 Western Maine Class D victory against the Pine Tree Academy Breakers (4- 1).

“I saw great intensity out of our girls,” Ladner said. “We talked about that before the game, we wanted to bring intensity all four quarters because we realized the first three games of the season that the first half was great, but second half we were a little flat.”

The Bobcats took ownership of the first half, holding the Breakers to just two points through 16 minutes, both of which came in the first quarter and off of foul shots taken by Kim Emerson and Allison Verrill. Richmond went on to shut out Pine Tree Academy in the second frame.

“That’s all we work on in practice,” Richmond’s Kelsea Anair said about her team’s defense. “He (Ladner) told us from the beginning that he’s a defensive coach, so we work on that every practice.”

Shortly after the Breakers took a 1-0 lead, the Bobcats found themselves in a frightening moment when Kayla Patterson went down with a lower-leg injury and had to be carried off the court, unable to return to the action.

With 3:50 remaining in the frame, the Bobcats were able to get their first shot off when Sydney Tilton put up a jump shot inside the paint to take a 2-1 lead. Under three minutes later, Autumn Acord took a step beyond the arc and knocked down a 3- pointer to give her team a 5-1 advantage.

The second quarter was all Richmond, adding nine more points to its total, while fending off the Breakers and jumping out to a 14-2 lead thanks to 18 turnovers by the Breakers, six of which were off steals by Anair.

“I’m more of a passer than a point scorer,” said Anair, who ended the night with seven points. “I like to give it off to my teammates more than taking it myself. I look at myself as more the team passer than the leading scorer, so I like to just hand it off.”

The Breakers finally caught the break they were looking for in the second half, scoring 14 points to cut down on the deficit, but the Bobcats held the edge throughout. Eight points came from the hands of Pine Tree freshman Alex Goodman.

“Our philosophy as a basketball team is that you’re not just playing man-to-man defense, you’re also playing half the basketball,” Ladner said. “We went into today knowing that (Goodman) was a really good ball player and we went into it knowing we had to shut her down, and I think we did a really good job with that.”

Ladner also expressed that Meranda Martin, who was placed on the floor to defend Goodman, was the main reason she didn’t get off more than the two field goals she collected on the night. Martin totaled 10 steals in the contest, leading all players on the court in the category.

Due to the Bobcats youngnatured team, Ladner says that defense will come first, and scoring off the transition will be key.

“We’re still a work in progress, I think we will be for a while,” he said. “We score a lot of our points off transition, that’s our style. We’re still working on our half-court offense.”

The Bobcats were able to hand the Breakers their first loss of the season (4-1), while improving their own record to 3-1 and moving into an early second-place slot in the Western D Heal Point Standings. Richmond will look to win its fourth straight tonight when it visits Valley at 5:30 p.m.

Richmond 30, Pine Tree Acad. 16

At Pine Tree Academy in Freeport

Richmond — Kelsea Anair 3-0-7, Sydney Tilton 3-2-8, Meranda Martin 2-0-4, Kayla Patterson 0-0-0, Camryn Hurley 0-0-0, Autumn Acord 2-0-5, Julie Plummer 1-0-2, Cassidy Harriman 2-0-4, Emily Douin 0-0-0, Tala Abu 0-0-0, Jen Snedeker 0-0-0, Totals — 13-2-30. Pine Tree Acad. — Allison Verrill 1-1- 3, Grace Johnson 0-0-0, Kim Emerson 1-1-3, Alex Goodman 2-3-8, Angel Hood 1-0-2, Stephie Kayumba 0-0-0, Adriana Depalma 0-0-0, Totals — 5-5-16. 3-point goals — (R) Acord, Anair; (PTA) Goodman. Records — Richmond 3-1; Pine Tree Acad. 4-1. Up next for the Bobcats — Today at Valley, 5:30 p.m.