Raider ‘D’ swarms Knights

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lapsing on us with two or three people. We spent time at practice this week keeping our eyes up, looking right away to find the open person,” Coach Stacy said. “We have players with good mid-range jump shots.”

Alysa Grawe added an exclamation point, draining a right-corner 3-pointer to end the quarter with FA up 33-19.

Sometimes, a team can cool off and take their foot off the gas pedal after intermission and holding a big lead.

Fryeburg kept motoring.

And, they did it with everyone contributing.

Jilyan Byrne (8 points) swished a baseline pull-up, and Shaw netted a 3-point- er. Pintor Gali added a pair of inside buckets and the FA lead swelled to 20 points.

Poland struggled offensively, committing six turnovers while only scoring 5 points — 4 on strong takes to the rim by Thornton, who scored a game-high 23 points. For the game, the Knights turned the ball over 24 times.

Fryeburg showed no letdown, as Shaw fueled a 13-0 run to close the third quarter, scoring 7 points and setting up Byrne for an easy bucket.

With Coach Stacy going to her bench in the final quarter, the teams played to a 9-9 standoff. Milosevic, who scored 6 points in the quarter, remained on the floor until 2:02 was left on the clock. Ana Maillett scored in the lane for FA, while Eden True made 1 of 2 foul shots to figure in the scoring.

“We need to work on Mina’s body control. She anticipates the pass well, but then plows through people every now and then. She’s come a long way,” Coach Stacy said. “We told Mina when she is in the lane, even with people hanging all over her, to keep the ball high, and either shoot or look for the open player on the outside. She did a really nice job deciding where to go with the ball. Those second chance shots have changed her game completely. We weren’t rebounding it earlier in the season, but now, we’re getting more second chance tries.”

At 4-8, the Raiders were ranked ninth in Tuesday’s Class A South Heal Ratings. The top 10 teams qualify for the tournament.

“We just need to be consistent. It really depends on how they show up that day mentally. I can teach and motivate as much as I can, then it’s up to them. Hopefully, these recent wins will improve their confidence and consistency,” Coach Stacy said. “If we can stay consistent and aggressive — yes, a little smarter at times (we tend to get a little foul happy). Our focus is to be aggressive, but smart. And consistent, hopefully. If we do that, we can continue to get better and get a few more wins.”