Auburn, ME – With their unblemished record and their #1 national ranking on the line the Lady Mustangs withstood a 3rd quarter run by their arch nemeses, SMCC, to pull away for the 71-56 win. An 8-point lead at the half, grew to 12-points in just seconds to start the 3rd quarter, but almost all of it was erased as the Seawolves cut the lead down to just 3. A 20-point 4th quarter sealed the deal for CM, dealing SMCC their first loss of the season, and preserving a perfect first semester for the Lady Mustangs.
Sophomore, Brooke Reynolds (Poland, ME) was, as always, dominant on the boards and in transition finishing with 22 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 steals. Nicole Hamblin found her scoring touch, connecting for 12 points, and Jane Lester (Bundaberg, Australia) came off the bench to score 13 points and pull down 6 rebounds. Freshman guard, Kristina Blais (Lewiston, ME) pulled down 8 rebounds, including 5 offensive, to go along with 4 points and 4 assists.
Alicia Ruth led the Seawolved with 17 points including 3 triples and hitting all 6 of her foul shots. Alexis Antonacci, a one women press breaker, connected on 9 of her 10 foul shots, and finished with 15 points.
Battling foul trouble in the first half (Eraleena Gethers-Hairston, Blais, & Hamblin all with 2 first half fouls), the CM bench, as they always do, stepped up. Ellie Harrington (Hampshire, UK) helped the Lady Mustangs weather the storm as did Taylor Esty (Rangeley, ME) who ended up leaving the game with a hand injury. Jenny Schlim (Nottingham, NH) hit for 7 points while taking 3 offensive fouls.
Although CM's pressure did not produce as many turnovers as it usually does, it wore down the Seawolves over the course of 40-minutes, helping produce 21 turnovers. The Mustangs extended their lead to as much as 18-points before SMCC hit a 3-pointer at the final buzzer. CM flat out dominated the paint, holding a +27 rebounding advantage. In fact, the Lady Mustangs pulled down more offensive rebounds than the Seawolves did defensive rebounds.
According to Head Coach, Andrew Morong, "These games are so much fun to be involved with! The amount of emotion that is poured into the game can be overwhelming, and often leads to missed layups and silly mistakes which we saw early on tonight. When SMCC made their run in the third quarter we never doubted the outcome of the game, good teams make runs, that is part of basketball. It's ok to bend, as long as you don't break, and we answered their third quarter run with one of our own in the forth. Going into winter break 14-0 and number one is nice, but we have a lot of work to do. I honestly believe we haven't even scratched the surface yet, which is incredibly exciting!"