BANGOR, Maine — For the first time in his six seasons as the Bangor High School girls basketball coach, Jay Kemble is employing a full-court press.
And it certainly worked well Friday night.
His Rams forced a ton of turnovers, converting several into easy baskets, and held Brewer to just six first-half points en route to a 49-25 win over the arch-rival Witches at the Red Barry Gym.
Class AA Bangor improved to 2-1 while Class A Brewer fell to 0-2.
“We’re athletic so we’re able to get up and down the court. That has to be part of our game as we continue to move forward,” said Kemble. “We have to be able to apply pressure all over the court, and pressing in the full-court actually helps us become a better half-court defensive team because you have to stay down in the stance and play harder for longer.”
He said his team has “all the pieces” necessary to play a full–court press.
“We’re a really fast team and we’re all aggressive on defense so when we jump like that and put pressure on people, we do really, really well,” said Bangor senior point guard Ayzlynn Gifford, who had 12 points and two assists.
Brewer coach Tanna Ross said her team had too many turnovers. “We’ve got to take care of the ball better and work harder,” she said. “Bangor won 90 percent of the loose balls. The effort plays all went to them.
“They worked harder. They deserved to win,” Ross added.
“We’ve been working on (the full-court press) really hard in practice,” pointed out Bangor junior guard Delaney Horr, who had a game-high 14 points to go with eight rebounds and three assists.
Junior guard Avery Clark finished with 12 points and six rebounds and junior guard Clara Oldenburg contributed eight points and four steals.
Speedy senior point guard Allie Flagg scored nine points for the Witches and also had four rebounds and three steals.
Nobody else had more than three points.
Junior guard Olivia Gilmore came off the bench to grab seven rebounds to go with her three points.
Junior forward Jillian Ford hauled down nine rebounds and had a basket.
Bangor used a 15-0 run spanning the first and second quarters to turn a 7-4 lead into a 22-4 lead before Flagg banked in a short jumper in the last minute of the first half to snap the drought.
Clark’s free throw closed out the first-half scoring and was her 10th point of the half.
Brewer came out in a full-court press and caused some turnovers in the third period that led to points but the Witches couldn’t get any closer than 14 points and Bangor put the game away with a 10-0 run late in the third quarter to swell the lead to 43-19.
Horr had the last eight points in the flurry.
“Our (ball) movement was really great in the third quarter,” said Horr. “We talked about rebounding and finishing in general in the locker room.”
Kemble said his team’s player rotations are getting better every game.
“Offensively, we’re getting better in terms of moving the ball, being in the right spot, being ready to catch and being ready to shoot. We’re starting to do those things a little bit better,” said Kemble.
Both teams will return to action on Tuesday.
Bangor will entertain Lewiston at 6 p.m. while Brewer will host Lawrence of Fairfield at 6:30.
