The Cheverus High School girls basketball team from Portland erased a 10-point deficit in the final 3:52 of regulation to force overtime and then received a go-ahead basket and two free throws from freshman Kristin King in the OT to break a 54-54 tie and post a 63-61 victory over the Hampden Academy Broncos in their Class A state championship game at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Saturday night.
King scored a game-high 24 points and she also had three rebounds, three assists and three steals for the 21-1 Stags.
Miss Maine Basketball finalist Kylie Lamson had 21 points and five steals for Cheverus. Junior Addison Jordan contributed seven points, seven steals, four rebounds and two assists.
The Stags trailed by 17 at halftime but kept chipping away in the second half.
They were still behind by 10 late in the fourth quarter when they went on a 12-2 run to tie it up at 54-54 and force OT.
Lamson had six of the points on two baskets and a pair of free throws; Jordan had four free throws and King had a basket.
Abby Kelly’s free throw opened the scoring in overtime for Cheverus and King followed that with a 3-pointer off a Jordan pass to make it 58-54.
But the Broncos tied it with an Aubrey Shaw basket off a Mallory Lausier feed with 2:40 to go and a Grace LaBree putback off her offensive rebound with 1:49 remaining.
King gave Cheverus the lead for good by banking in a runner with 42 seconds remaining and Lamson then stole the ball which eventually led to King being fouled and King hit both with 22 seconds remaining to give Cheverus a four-point lead.
Aubrey Shaw’s 3-pointer off a Katelyn Adams pass six seconds later pulled Hampden Academy within one but the Stags did a good job protecting the basketball and Jordan added a free throw with two seconds remaining.
Hampden Academy coach Nick Winchester said Cheverus deserves a lot of credit for its comeback.
“To only score 17 points in the first half and be down by 17, some teams would just pack it up,” Winchester said. “It would be a hill too big to overcome.”
But Cheverus wouldn’t let up.
“They stayed with what they had been doing and how they have played all year long,” Winchester said.
The Hampden coach also gave King a lot of credit.
“Some of the shots she finished in that second half over high hands against really good defense was just impressive,” Winchester said about the Cheverus freshman.
“I told the girls if they went out and left it all on the floor, they’d have nothing to hang their heads about and they don’t,” Winchester said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the effort they put forward and how they played.”
He also said if you had told him before the game that they would score 61 points, he figured there would be no way they would lose the game.
“But they just made shots and kept coming in the second half and never quit. So kudos to them for that,” he added.
Cheverus Junior Addison Jordan contributed seven points, seven steals, four rebounds and two assists.
Junior Eve Wiles led the 17-5 Broncos with 17 points and two assists and senior Grace LaBree had 15 points, eight rebounds, seven blocked shots and an assist. Junior Aubrey Shaw chipped in with 11 points, eight rebounds and three assists; junior Katelyn Adams had nine points, five rebounds and four assists and freshman Naia Studley contributed six points and three assists. Sophomore Mallory Lausier grabbed five rebounds to go with three points and two assists.
Cheverus shot 24-for-70 from the floor and 13-for-16 from the foul line while Hampden went 21-for-36 and 11-for-18, respectively.
Hampden Academy outrebounded Cheverus 37-26 but committed 27 turnovers, including 20 in the second half against Cheverus’ full-court press, while Cheverus only turned the ball over nine times.
