Windham varsity girls’ basketball hosted Oxford Hills on Tuesday, Jan. 21 and despite fighting hard for a solid 32 minutes, the Vikings prevailed over the Lady Eagles, 44-37.
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| Windham sophomore Denali Momot takes a shot from inside the paint during a girls' prep basketball game against Oxford Hills at Windham High School on Tuesday, Jan. 21. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA |
“I think it’s just like an eye-opener, especially growing up in the Windham Youth Basketball program,” said Jarvais, who scored 12 points against Oxford Hills. “Always looking up to the next big star and it being surreal that I’m the person that everyone is looking up to. It’s something that I don’t expect, I’m just playing because I love the sport, not because I’m trying to impress anyone. It represents all the work I’ve put into it from me being in kindergarten to now being a senior, I think it’s cool to see the growth that I’ve accomplished through the years, and it’s especially cool to be recognized.”
Early on against the Vikings, Windham moved the ball well and the game was tight, with Windham leading by one point after the first quarter.
Oxford Hills capitalized on several turnovers and pulled ahead, sinking a couple of three-pointers. Although the Vikings had the lead, Windham was right on their heels and Oxford Hills only led 22-19 at the half.
In the second half, Windham rebounded well, and junior Addison Caiazzo sank a three-pointer.
“Late in the game (we) switched defenses from man-to-man to zone,” said Windham sophomore Denali Momot. “I think especially in the first half, our cuts were a little bit better, but some people were just not seeing them, me being one of them. We had a lot of open shots, and we got each other open very well. In the second half we brought up our defense ... we shut down some of their best players as much as we could.”
With roughly three minutes remaining, just seven points separated the two teams.
“Kids worked hard for 32 minutes against arguably the best team, just a tough matchup overall for us,” said Windham varsity girls’ basketball coach Brody Artes. “There were a couple little stretches where we let things get away from us, but for the most part we did what we needed to do and competed ... the best we could. Defensively we’re very good again and that’s going to be our backbone this year. We just got to make sure we ride that going (up against Cheverus) and find some offense to go with that. We got to make sure we get good looks and be strong with the ball, take good shots and if we do those things, we’ll be OK.”
Windham did not let up until the final buzzer.
“Facing the fact that one of our top-leading scorers has been out, has been a challenge for us but not letting that get to our heads and our defense really carries us a lot; playing with our defensive side really helped us” said Windham junior Marley Jarvais. “Our main goal was to stop Ella (Pelletier) and (Gabbie) Tibbetts, which we contained in the first half, but Ella is just unstoppable. I think we did a good job putting pressure on her and Stella did a really good job defending her. I think breaking the press went well ... we fixed how aggressive we were cutting in the second half rather than the first half which helped us a lot. Going to our passes (needs work); we tend to wait for the ball and watch the ball go to us rather than going to the ball. We need to work as a team ... and get that one look and so on and so forth.”
Windham’s boys’ and girls’ basketball teams play a double-header at home against Cheverus on Friday, Jan. 24. The girls’ game starts at 6 p.m. and boys’ game tips off at 7:30 p.m. <
Oxford Hills capitalized on several turnovers and pulled ahead, sinking a couple of three-pointers. Although the Vikings had the lead, Windham was right on their heels and Oxford Hills only led 22-19 at the half.
In the second half, Windham rebounded well, and junior Addison Caiazzo sank a three-pointer.
“Late in the game (we) switched defenses from man-to-man to zone,” said Windham sophomore Denali Momot. “I think especially in the first half, our cuts were a little bit better, but some people were just not seeing them, me being one of them. We had a lot of open shots, and we got each other open very well. In the second half we brought up our defense ... we shut down some of their best players as much as we could.”
With roughly three minutes remaining, just seven points separated the two teams.
“Kids worked hard for 32 minutes against arguably the best team, just a tough matchup overall for us,” said Windham varsity girls’ basketball coach Brody Artes. “There were a couple little stretches where we let things get away from us, but for the most part we did what we needed to do and competed ... the best we could. Defensively we’re very good again and that’s going to be our backbone this year. We just got to make sure we ride that going (up against Cheverus) and find some offense to go with that. We got to make sure we get good looks and be strong with the ball, take good shots and if we do those things, we’ll be OK.”
Windham did not let up until the final buzzer.
“Facing the fact that one of our top-leading scorers has been out, has been a challenge for us but not letting that get to our heads and our defense really carries us a lot; playing with our defensive side really helped us” said Windham junior Marley Jarvais. “Our main goal was to stop Ella (Pelletier) and (Gabbie) Tibbetts, which we contained in the first half, but Ella is just unstoppable. I think we did a good job putting pressure on her and Stella did a really good job defending her. I think breaking the press went well ... we fixed how aggressive we were cutting in the second half rather than the first half which helped us a lot. Going to our passes (needs work); we tend to wait for the ball and watch the ball go to us rather than going to the ball. We need to work as a team ... and get that one look and so on and so forth.”
Windham’s boys’ and girls’ basketball teams play a double-header at home against Cheverus on Friday, Jan. 24. The girls’ game starts at 6 p.m. and boys’ game tips off at 7:30 p.m. <
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