HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton girls basketball team suffered its first loss of the season Saturday and also lost senior captain Katie Condon to a knee injury that could sideline her for the rest of the year.
Houlton lost to Mount Desert Island, 47-41, as Trojan Sierra Tapley scored 15 points to help MDI remain perfect on the year. Keely McConomy chipped in with 12 points for 5-0 Mount Desert Island.
For Houlton, Kolleen Bouchard scored 15 points, Rylee Warman added nine and Natalie Hill chipped in seven.
The Shires played much of the game without senior Condon, who suffered a knee injury in the first minute of the game. Condon slipped on the court while along the baseline and fell awkwardly to the ground, according to coach Shawn Graham.
“Quite frankly, I think it set the tone for the whole game,” the coach said. “It took a little wind out of our sails. Everybody was in a bit of shock including myself. It was difficult to see the emotions of her sitting on the bench with her leg wrapped in ice knowing that her entire senior season was in jeopardy.”
Her status for the rest of the year was undetermined as of presstime as the team awaits results from an MRI on her knee.
“The girls did an excellent job of staying in the game,” Graham said. “I believe it was more energy and effort than anything else. We caused some problems on the offensive end for them. Offensively for us, we were limited to certain sets because we had to go into our bench with girls that had to play the entire jv game and the majority of the varsity game.”
Aside from the injury, the Shires were also plagued with foul trouble for much of the game. Chelsea Gentle, the Shires’ top defensive player, fouled out of the game with six minutes remaining. Up to that point, Gentle held Tapley to just six points. Tapley then scored nine points in the fourth quarter, which proved to be the turning point in the game.
“We had a four-point lead with four minutes to play, but Tapley nailed a 3-pointer then they stole the inbounds and we fouled, they made both free throws and then we were down one,” Graham said. “We just didn’t recover from that as we had a few costly turnovers the last few minutes.”
MDI led 13-9 in the first quarter and clung to a slim 23-22 lead at halftime. Houlton knotted the game at 30-30 after three periods. MDI also went to the foul line 25 times to Houlton’s nine.
Graham said if Condon’s injury turns out to be season-ending, the Shires will have to make a lot of adjustments on the floor.
“I was pleased with the fact that we still had a shot to win the game against one of the best teams in Class B on their home court and being down a very good player of our own,” he added.
