Xoe Morse took a deep breath, and then calmly swished a pair of free throws to break a 21-21 tie with less than a minute remaining to lead the Wiscasset girls basketball team to a stunning 24-21 over Islesboro on Jan. 10 in Islesboro.
The exciting, come-from-behind victory shattered a run of 122 straight losses for the Wiscasset girls program, dating back to a Dec. 22, 2016, victory against Hall-Dale.
“I was nervous, but I felt confident because we practiced foul shots a lot this week,” Morse said, smiling from ear-to-ear while sitting in the stands with her teammates waiting for the boys game to begin. “I tried to block everything out and to focus on each shot. I’m just so happy for our team, and glad I could help us win.”
Head coach Daniel Wall, who took over during the summer and worked with the team leading up to the season, said his small, young squad has been playing strong defense, and that is what kept them in striking range to break the streak.
“We played strong D and then settled in and took care of the basketball, and then we made free throws at the end,” Wall said. “They’ve been shooting extra free throws every night at practice. I told the kids, ‘Be ready, we’ll find ourselves in a close game and it’s going to come down to the foul line.’”
Michelle Farrin, a sophomore who led the Wolverines with eight points in the game, made a free throw with 5.9 seconds remaining to give Wiscasset a 24-21 lead and a little breathing room before the defense held off the Eagles to earn the emotional, hard-fought win.
Farrin had to take a little breather in the fourth quarter of the match to regroup. As the clock ticked down with the Wolverines nursing a series of tiny leads, the pressure of the game was mounting, and it was apparent that the streak might feel like a giant anchor on Farrin and her teammates as they got close to ending it, with doubt nibbling at them.
It takes a village to break a streak, and the Wiscasset girls got a boost from boys head coach Jamey Roy, who observed Wiscasset’s leading scorer on the sideline in some distress during a timeout and climbed down from the stands to assist her while Wall huddled with the other seven girls to talk strategy. Roy helped get Farrin some fresh air, and when Farrin returned she came back strong, scoring the final Wolverines’ basket that gave them another small lead before the Eagles battled back to tie it yet again.
Before the last-minute heroics, the Wiscasset girls had to overcome weary sea legs from the ferry ride that may have led to an 8-2 deficit in the first half. The Wolverines rallied to claim a 14-12 lead at the end of three quarters and then the pressure really started to build.
The game went back and forth in the final quarter, with the Wolverines eventually taking a three-point lead, 21-18, with 2:18 left after Olivia Marshall buried a layup on a nice inbounds pass from Jessie Rhinebolt. The Eagles clawed their way back to tie the game 21-21 with 56 seconds remaining.
“The girls dug down deep to win that game, and I’m so proud of each of them,” Wall said. “These kids have not won or had a close game in which they had to learn how to dig deep and will themselves to keep battling to grind out a win. They’ve been working hard and getting better every game, and for the last two weeks we’ve talked about digging deep, not giving up, and staying in the game until our opportunity comes.”
The exhausting game matched the tiring adventure to arrive at the game to begin with. The journey to the win included a long bus ride to Lincolnville, a ferry across the choppy Atlantic Ocean, and then another bus ride from the terminal to the Islesboro gym. Since there is no ferry back from the island after 4 p.m., the girls team had to celebrate the win in the dark on a loud chartered vessel the size of a lobster boat on a windy night while waves splashed over the stern.
There were scant Wiscasset supporters in Islesboro, due to the logistics of the last public ferry departing the island for the mainland before the time the game was even set to begin. The only way back was to hitch a ride on a charter boat making runs to transport the two Wiscasset teams and a bunch of Islesboro magnet school students and supporters back to the port at Lincolnville, with a capacity of 23 passengers crammed under and on the deck per ride.
The Wiscasset boys team made up for a lack of other Wolverines fans on the island by cheering boisterously throughout the game, coaxing the girls on to what must have seemed like an impossible underdog victory against a 4-3 Eagles squad that beat them 35-25 on Dec. 20. With Wiscasset holding a slim lead in the closing moments, the boys team chanted “D-up, D-up, D-up!” and stomped their feet in deafening unison on the bleachers in the gym to provide encouragement to the desperate Wolverines’ defense.
“After the buzzer I had tears in my eyes, as I knew the moment meant so much to the girls, and to the Wiscasset community,” said Wiscasset Middle High School Principal Sarah Hubert, a regular in attendance at Wolverines games throughout the season. “Our students work so hard despite hurdles and setbacks – and this girl’s team truly defines what perseverance looks and feels like.”
“There wasn’t one second during the game when the girls weren’t determined. If they made a mistake, they instantly adjusted and kept going,” said Hubert. “It was amazing to see those eight girls work so hard for 32 minutes without showing any sign of giving up – that takes grit. As we say at WMHS, we’re small but we’re mighty, and that small team was mighty on the floor that Friday night on Islesboro.”
Hubert said she had a feeling that this group would break the streak and set a new path for Wolverines girls basketball.
“This year’s team put in extra time and effort over the summer to learn basketball and to come together as a team, and their drive to improve was led by our new coach, Daniel Wall,” Hubert said.
Scoring for the Wolverines in the game, which started a new win streak, were Farrin with 8 points, Rhinebolt 7, Morse 5, and Marshall and Trixie Loyola with 2 apiece. Also on the roster and contributing mightily to the victory were Brianna Farrin, Maddie Richardson, and Makayla Bush. The assistant coach for the Wolverines that helped guide the team to the win is Megan Thibodeau.
Alma Bewsher led the Eagles with 14 points.
Wiscasset improved to 1-8 with the win while Islesboro dropped to 4-4 on the season.
This article appears through a media partnership with The Lincoln County News.
