AUGUSTA — The Gardiner girls basketball team was feeling the nerves early in the Class A North quarterfinals Friday.
Lizzy Gruber, however, couldn’t have looked more comfortable.
Gruber scored 23 points, including her team’s first 14, and No. 2 Gardiner cruised past No. 7 Mt. Blue 50-29 at the Augusta Civic Center.
Gruber had 18 points in the first half, and finished with 19 rebounds for the Tigers (17-2).
“I think we all came to play (Friday),” Gruber said. “In the first half, things weren’t necessarily going our way shooting-wise, the shots weren’t always falling, but we’re playing on a different court. A lot of our girls haven’t played here before, there are only four of us who have actually played on this court.”
Eva Stevens led Mt. Blue (8-12) with 10 points. It was the Cougars’ first time in the regional quarterfinals since 2016, and coach Zac Conlogue said his team had some jitters as well.
“I thought we got good looks, I thought we had a good first quarter, just none of the shots were falling,” he said. “I think we started out 1-for-15. It’s tough to win games shooting that way.”
Shooting woes affected Gardiner as well early on, as the Tigers found their shooters in the first quarter for good looks on the perimeter but couldn’t get any of them to fall. Instead, Gardiner turned to its post game and Gruber, and used good ball movement around the halfcourt to break up the pressure around her near the basket.
Mt. Blue’s Hannah Wilbur, left, and Gardiner’s Lizzy Gruber battle for a rebound during a Class A North girls basketball quarterfinal game Friday at the Augusta Civic Center. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
“We talked about how (in a 67-47 loss to Skowhegan) we were getting (Lizzy) touches where she had to get the touches and then make the moves with the ball,” coach Mike Gray said. “We talked this week about trying to make sure our guards are moving the ball so that they’re doing the work, and she can the ball in an easier spot. I thought we did a much better job of that.”
The approach worked as Gruber outscored the Mt. Blue team in the first half, putting in 10 points in the first quarter to guide Gardiner to a 10-4 lead, and eight more in the second as the Tigers went ahead at the break 25-8. Mt. Blue cut the deficit in the second quarter to six at 14-8 on a Hannah Wilbur 3-pointer, but Emily Grady hit a three on the next Gardiner possession to respond and kick-start an 11-0 run to end the half.
“Today, I came in focused,” Gruber said. “That’s really what’s most important, that each and every one of us comes in with a game mentality.”
While Gruber was handling the bulk of the offense, Gray was pleased with the team defense the Tigers played in the first half to limit the Cougars.
“The first half, we weren’t hitting any shots other than Lizzy, but we played defense,” he said. “It was a slow start, but I liked the way the girls just kept competing and kept talking in the defensive end and helping each other out.
“We had our hands high, we were talking, we were moving,” Gruber said. “We saw the one extra pass. … We read each other today better than we have all season.”
Mt. Blue’s Katelyn Daggett, left, fouls Gardiner’s Mckenna Johnson during a Class A North girls basketball quarterfinal game Friday at the Augusta Civic Center. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
In the third quarter, the rest of the Tigers found their offensive rhythm. Megan Gallagher (seven points), Savannah Brown and Taylor Takatsu had baskets on consecutive possessions to open the period, and Gardiner scored the quarter’s first nine points and 16 of the first 19 to pull safely away.
“We talked at halftime, eventually the other shots would start falling. We knew eventually all these other girls were going to score for us,” Gray said. “It was just a matter of some jitters, some nerves, but we knew if we just kept playing like we’re capable of, good things would happen.”
Conlogue said he hopes the return to regional tournament play at the Civic Center for his team will only help it progress next season.
“Our underclassmen were like ‘Oh, this is awesome. We’re coming back here every year,'” he said. “That’s the attitude to have. We lose four pretty big pieces, but we’ve got a good young core back, and they’re hungry and they want to get better. Now they have the itch to be here.”
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