Windham boys’ JV summer basketball keeps Gray-New Gloucester at bay in final seconds

By Matt Pascarella

Windham boys’ junior varsity summer basketball team had a slow start in a game against Gray-New Gloucester and they were down at halftime on Monday, July 15 at Windham but quickly flipped the score and stayed out in front in a very tight game as the clock wound down. At the final buzzer, Windham walked off the court with a 42-40 win.

Windham JV freshman Carter Ammons goes up for a shot 
during a boys' summer basketball game at Windham High
School against Gray-New Gloucester on Monday, July 15.
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA
  

“At the start of the game it was rough,” said Windham freshman Carter Ammons. “We started to pick up near 15 minutes into the game, just pushing the ball fast; Gray-New Gloucester is a lot bigger and athletic than us; we just had to box out and we got boards and we beat them there. Our energy was there, we were picking up full court ... energy. There’s a lot of back-to-back drives; we don’t need to do that, we’re just forcing it in. Hold the ball, gather and be ready and not rush it.”

The game was close starting out. Gray-New Gloucester grabbed several turnovers and began to pull away.

Windham freshman Quraunte Pender sunk a three-pointer. Soon just a single point separated the two teams. Gray-New Gloucester remained ahead, while Windham worked to reverse the score. In the first half, several shots just weren’t falling.

Gray-New Gloucester had a significant lead, but not for long. Before the end of the first half, Windham freshman Werani Anthony sunk a three-pointer. Windham trailed 29-24 after the first buzzer.

“In the first half we had a bunch of unforced turnovers,” said Windham JV coach Cameron Brown. “On times we get down, it’s mostly stuff that we can control. Getting everybody on the same page at halftime was huge and that’s how we were able to turn things around in the second half. Trusting what we know [enabled Windham to keep the lead]. This group listens really well, they know what we’re trying to do, they know our system really well; trusting each other and trusting the system is huge for them. One of things we really haven’t worked on in practice is end-of-game stuff and when we are in close games what we need to do, especially when the other team is looking to foul, who we want with the ball. We haven’t really worked on a press breaker; definitely have to put one of those in because teams are going to press us all year.”

In the second half, Windham quickly made up the difference and midway through the half took the lead. Toward the end of the game, the score got tighter and with 37 seconds left to play, again, just one point separated the teams. With 26 seconds remaining and now two points separating the teams, Windham held off Gray-New Gloucester until the end.

“What I think led to the turnaround was we got the ball deep into the playmaker’s spot,” said Anthony. “The communication on the team was very good; we started moving the ball around once we saw that we were down. Our passing gave us the motivation to push further and move the ball more. I think we got the team to calm down and got them to settle the game down which helped us a lot. In close games I think we should slow the game down a lot more and keep possession of the ball and keep it moving. End game situations [need work]; we all got tensed up in the end and it caused us to throw bad passes inbound and caused more steals.” <