Piscataquis girls eye busier schedule

By Ernie Clark
Staff Writer

GUILFORD — The Piscataquis Community High School girls basketball team hopes a combination of good health and a busier schedule will spur improved performance in the new year,

Not that the start of the season has been terrible for coach Brian Gaw’s club, though that phase of the campaign ended on a disappointing note Monday night with a 44-32 loss to Central of Corinth.

“We’ve identified a lot of areas that we need to improve upon,” said Gaw, whose team is now 4-2 but still ranked fourth in Class C North. We’ve had trouble scoring the basketball on a consistent basis. We’ve been pretty streaky, and recently the streaks have been kind of bad. We’ve really only put one good half together in the last couple of games.”

Class B Central (3-3) led for all but the game’s five minutes, but the Red Devils created their decisive cushion during the third quarter while 6-foot-3 PCHS senior center Delani Bennett was sidelined with an ankle injury.

Coach Diane Rollins’ club worked into the lane to outscore the Pirates 14-5 immediately after intermission to extend a 20-18 halftime edge to 34-23 entering the fourth quarter.

“It definitely was a factor in the game,” said Gaw of Bennett’s absence, “but our other lineup can generally force a few more turnovers.

“Central is pretty quick at every position and [Red Devils guard Sydney] Allen’s a very good ballhandler. It’s difficult to get any panicked look in her eyes, she’s very calm.”

Allen, a sophomore, had game-high totals of 15 points and six assists in leading a Central team seeking a fresh start of its own after a sluggish pre-Christmas effort.

“This was one of our better games,” she said. “We’re trying to change things up a bit and get a new start on the season. We’d been a little down but now we’re picking things back up and feeling better. In practice we’re just working harder as a team and trying new things. That’s what it takes.”

Defense ultimately fueled Central’s road victory as the Red Devils induced 28 Piscataquis turnovers while limiting the Pirates to 27 field-goal attempts.

“We had too many turnovers, and defensively they locked us up,” said Gaw. “We struggled. We kept trying to do the same one play and it wasn’t working so we tried it harder.”

Sophomore forward Emily Smith added 10 points for Central and played a key defensive role against Bennett.

Bennett had 10 points, six rebounds and four blocked shots but was held to six shot attempts by Central’s double-teaming ways and also was limited in her movement after returning to the game late in the third period.

“We didn’t want Delani to be able to catch the ball because when she catches the ball you see what she can do,” said Rollins. “My sophomore, Emily Smith, put a body on her and tried to front her and then I had another girl in the back coming over and helping.

“That was another part of our start-over tonight, listening better and understanding what we needed to do to achieve the goal.”

Freshman Alivia Hunt came off the bench to contribute six points for Piscataquis. Another reserve, sophomore Lexi Harris, grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

But the Pirates shot just 37 percent (10 of 27) from the field and 55 percent (11 of 20) from the free-throw line, numbers Gaw hopes will improve as the team becomes more immersed in its schedule.

“No excuses,” he said, “but the schedule hasn’t helped. We’ve played one game a week I think for two or three weeks and it’s tough to get any rhythm that way. Offense is about continuity and flow and we just don’t have that right now.”