Well-balanced scoring attacks leads Lady Shires by Hodgdon, 46-30

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — Unlike the boys game played a day earlier, there was no late-game heroics when the Houlton girls hosted Hodgdon Friday evening. The visiting Hawks (3-3) could not keep pace with Houlton (2-1) as the Shires rolled to a 46-30 victory.
    The Shires had a balanced scoring attack as Marina Cameron led the team with 11 points, followed by Tori Hanson with nine; Amanda Fogarty, eight; Bre Longstaff, seven; Samantha Keegan, five; and Makala Folsom, Lainey Jameson and Jessica Dickison, each with two.
Pioneer Times photograph/Joseph Cyr
IT’S MINE — Houlton’s Tori Hanson is determined to pull down the rebound against Hodgodn defenders, Karissa Harris, left, and Lacey McQuarrie, behind.
    For Hodgdon, Mariah Wiley led all players with 16 points, while Maya Gardiner and Jenna Steamer each had six and Kim Levesque added two.
    Houlton led 7-6, 15-10 and 36-19 at the quarter breaks.
    “I was very pleased with our defensive intensity,” Houlton coach Shawn Graham said. “We’re a small team, but we were able to box out against Hodgdon’s taller players.”
    “We definitely need to work on our low post work,” Hodgdon coach Vaughn Farrar said. “I know the girls are tired, but they need to pick up their intensity. We just looked flat. We didn’t penetrate well at all, but we’ll work on that next week.”
    Wiley had the hot hand for the Hawks early, sinking a pair of 3-pointers to account for her team’s only points of the quarter.
    Houlton had a balanced attack, converting second-chance opportunities and also made the most of its free throws.
    Farrar said the Hawks also struggled with foul trouble in the contest. The Shires went to the line 14 times and converted 10 of those foul shots (71 percent). In comparison, Hodgdon attempted just five free throws, making two of them (40 percent).
    The Shires dodged a bullet before halftime, when senior captain Fogarty landed awkwardly on her right hand diving for a loose ball. Fogarty had to be helped off the court and did not return in the first half.
Pioneer Times photograph/Joseph Cyr
TURNS THE CORNER — Hodgdon’s Lacey McQuarrie turns the corner on Houlton’s Marina Cameron.
    “Amanda’s doing OK,” Graham said. “She bent the nail back pretty deep on her thumb. We’re fortunate because I thought she had sprained or broken something. She’ll be fine.”
    Hodgdon pressed the Shires successfully early in the game, forcing a couple of turnovers.
    “We’ve been working on different girls in different positions on the press-breaker,” Graham said. “We had trouble getting it in, so we had to tweak it a bit, looking for the right mismatch.”
    As a nice tip of the cap to the visiting Hawks, Houlton’s High School band played the Hodgdon school song before belting out the Shires’ song.