FAIRFIELD — The Lawrence girls brushed aside a rough opening period Friday night to mark its 12th straight victory with a 63-47 home win over Nokomis.
Nokomis owned the first quarter as the hot shooting of Raegan King put Lawrence (14-2) in a hole early. Given space to shoot, the freshman guard sank a trio of 3-pointers as the Warriors finished the period on a 10-2 run to take a 17-9 lead into the second quarter.
“We’re a team that’s going to go as far as the leadership of our six seniors takes us, so after the (King) hit three 3s, we really challenged them,” said Lawrence head coach Greg Chesley. “We said, ‘Seniors, we need that leadership,’ and you saw them step up after that with the communication on defense and the girls flying around.”
Lawrence, though, would regroup over the next eight minutes as it stepped up its perimeter defense to hold Nokomis (9-8) to four points in the second. Hope Bouchard broke through offensively with six points in the period as the Bulldogs went into halftime leading 24-21.
Lawrence’s Alisabeth Dumont dives for a loose ball during a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A game against Nokomis on Friday night in Fairfield. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
Yet it was in the second half when Lawrence’s offense truly got rolling. With the Bulldogs leading 30-26, Bri Poulin muscled her way to three straight baskets in the paint to put her team up by double digits. Lawrence then answered a Brianna Townsend basket with a 7-0 run to end the period.
Nokomis cut the deficit to 57-51 midway through the fourth quarter as Townsend fueled a run that kept the visitors in the game. Lawrence immediately answered with 3-pointers from Ali Higgins and Alisabeth Dumont to reestablish a double-digit advantage that held the rest of the way.
Dumont led Lawrence with 16 points and also recorded three rebounds and a pair of steals. The Bulldogs also got 11 points and nine rebounds from Poulin, 10 points and three rebounds from Higgins, 10 points from Bouchard and eight points and three rebounds from Kaylee Elkins.
Lawrence has not lost since falling on the road to Bangor on Dec. 22. The Bulldogs have won every game by double digits during that span, in which they’ve won by 20-plus points 10 times and averaged a 34.2-point margin of victory.
“The season has definitely gone really good for us,” said Dumont, whose 16-point effort included four 3-pointers. “I’d say it’s gone exactly as we all expected. We’ve all worked really hard, and we’re going to keep working hard to keep it going.”
Townsend scored a game-high 17 points for Nokomis while adding four rebounds and an equal number of steals. Cam King (15 points, seven rebounds) and Raegan King (11 points, six rebounds) also finished in double figures for the Warriors.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
