Portland ME:
The Windham High School varsity girls routed
Portland 64-36 at the Portland Expo tonight.
Meghan
Gribbin shooting free throws in the second
half. Gribbin scored 20 points on the night.
Portland
opened the game game with standout Nicollete
Kapothananis hitting two straight shots to
put Portland up 4-0. Windham's top two
scorers responded. Kelsey McGowan hit a jump
shot and Meghan Gribbin drained a three
pointer to put Windham in front 5-4. Katrina
Gilson scored to give Portland a 6-5 lead.
Amber Allen hit a jumper with 5:01 left in
the first quarter to put Windham ahead for
good. Allen's basket began an 11-0 run for
the Eagles that included two more baskets
for McGowan, another for Allen and another
three-pointer for Gribbin. Windham led 20-13
at the end of the first quarter.
Gribbin
ready to exploit the Portland defense.
Windham's
defense shined in the second quarter holding
Portland to two points. The offense was
strong with Olivia Hurd, McGowan, Gribbin,
and Allen all contributing to the Eagles' 13
points. Windham extended their lead to 33-15
at the half.
Kelsey
McGowan puts in two of her 28 points.
Windham
dominated the third quarter, outscoring
Portland 23-13. McGowan scored 12 of her
game high 28 points in the quarter,
including eight of those points in a 15-2
run spanning two minutes in which she and
Gribbin accounted for all of the Eagles'
points. The two combined for 21 of Windham's
23 points in the quarter with Allen chipping
in the other two.
Coach Cummings gives
her sophomore guards some final instructions.
The fourth
quarter was quiet compared to the rest of
the game. Windham went into possession mode
and ran huge chunks of time off the clock
between shots preventing Portland from being
able to put together any miracle rallies.
McGowan scored four more points and Allen
scored the last four points of the game, all
on foul shots.
Kelsey
McGowan scored 28 points on the night.
The Eagles are
riding a three game win streak. They are
playing like a team that is gaining more
confidence every time they step on the
court. That confidence was highlighted in
the third quarter of tonight's game. Point
guard Gribbin dissected the Bulldogs defense
with no look passes, slashing runs to the
hoop and precision shooting. McGowan was on
fire, seemingly sinking everything she put
up. Allen and Hurd had a big presence inside
with Gina Cirillo sitting on the bench with
crutches in hand. Steph Frost and Bebe Butts
controlled the ball on the perimeter when
asked to.
Eagles Coach
Jessie Cummings said, "Our game plan was to
take Nicollete Kapothananis out of it and I
thought the girls did a nice job doing
that."
Amber Allen
inbounds the ball to Bebe Butts
When asked if
this game was a good sign of where her team
is headed Cummings replied, "We've had three
great games and we have a big game Saturday
and its nice to have a big momentum shift
going into that game."
The team is coming
together at the right time. They host undefeated
Scarborough at 5PM on Saturday. These Eagles are
ready to fly as high as they believe they can.
