ATHOL — Trailing by seven points at halftime, the Mahar Regional School girls basketball team needed an energy injection against Athol High School on Saturday afternoon at Mallet Gymnasium.
In her first extended varsity minutes, freshman Kendrah Doane provided the spark the Senators needed in a 64-49 win over the Red Raiders in Franklin County League North play.
Doane offered athletic defense and sound ball-handling in a dominant second half for Mahar.
“I was setting up offense more,” Doane said. “We kept our heads up. We knew we could come back. We just had to not give up the easy points.”
Mahar outscored Athol by a 16-0 margin in the third quarter after the slow start. An additional guard helped the Senators initiate their offense.
“We were a little tired,” Mahar coach Larry Fisher. “We played only 16 hours ago (an overtime win against Frontier). We went to a quicker team on the floor in the second half. (Athol) shot lights out in the first half. But the second half, not so much.”
Doane fearlessly dribbled through the Athol defense and flew around on Mahar’s defensive end during the third-quarter run.
“We decided to get a spark going,” Fisher said of Doane. “And she gave us a spark. She was part of the quicker team.”
Athol started fast, going on a 8-0 run after the Senators scored the first five points of the game.
The Red Raiders took a 33-26 lead into halftime with a 11-3 run in the second quarter.
Geca Baptista (eight points) and Haley Bigwood ignited the run. Baptista did her damage with the jumper, while Bigwood got to the basket with aggressive drives to the rim.
Some of the same looks didn’t fall in the second half for the Red Raiders.
“I thought we were breaking the press well,” Athol coach Kelly Kaczmarczyk said. “We just couldn’t finish.”
Bigwood finished with 28 points for the Red Raiders, 19 coming in a big first half. Bigwood left some points at the free throw line, going 5-for-15 for the game.
Micalyn Mailloux helped a slumping Senators’ offense by going 5-for-6 from the line toward the end of the half.
Mailloux scored 15 of her game-high 29 points after the intermission. She relentlessly attacked the Athol defense with hard drives into the paint.
Fellow guard Delaney Parker had an efficient game, scoring 13 points.
“We wanted to clear out,” Mailloux said. “They are bigger than us but we are faster. Coach told us to take it to the hoop and draw fouls.”
Mailloux, who went 11-for-12 from the free throw line, was also impressed with Doane.
“She is not afraid,” Mailloux said of her freshman teammate. “I know when I was young playing with older girls I was timid. She is definitely not.”
Doane made a short jumper and later assisted on a basket by Saylor Kegans that upped the Mahar lead to 40-33 in the third quarter.
The Red Raiders made a run at the beginning of the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 44-38 behind five straight points from Bigwood.
The Senators answered with a score off an offensive rebound by Courtney Page and a runner by Parker. After a Mailloux basket and a foul, the Senators had a 54-39 lead with under five minutes to play in the game.
Rozlyn Nelson, Taylor Cleveland and Reily Polana all had four points for the Red Raiders.
Kegans scored seven points for Mahar, with Abby Henne adding five.
Henne and Siobhan Davis led Mahar in rebounding with seven boards each.
The teams meet again on Jan. 20 in Orange.
