DYER BROOK, Maine — The youth movement arrived with a flurry Friday evening as the young Southern Aroostook girls basketball team opened the season with an impressive 68-51 win over Central Aroostook.
The Warriors are one of the youngest, if not the youngest, basketball teams in the state with one junior, four freshmen and two eighth-graders.
“Our kids are extremely excited, but I’m not sure they truly understand yet how much the odds are stacked against them in terms of numbers and youth,” said SACS coach Cliff Urquhart.
In their season opener, SACS scored the first 15 points of the game to take a commanding lead it would not relinquish. The Warriors went on to win 68-51. Leading the way for SACS were Kassidy Mathers, Kylie Vining and Sydney Brewer with 15 points apiece. Katelyn Slauenwhite added 11.
For the Panthers, Ashley Harris scored a game-high 24 points, while hitting five 3-pointers.
“A quick start certainly helped in the CA game,” Urquhart said. “Our pressure bothered them early and it was just too big of a hole to dig themselves out of. When Karli Levesque got in foul trouble that hurt them on both ends. We received great contributions from everyone on the team.”
On Monday, the Warriors followed up with a 57-27 home win over East Grand. Mathers scored a game-high 18 points, while Vining added 15 points and Slauenwhite chipped in 10. Southern Aroostook led 10-3, 22-12 and 40-22 at the quarter breaks.
“Last night we were able to shake off a slow shooting night and get points from pressure,” the coach said. “We are also finding different ways to score.”
For East Grand, Hailey Shay led the way with 13 points and Sarah Stoddard added 11.
“This team surprises me every time I see them play and I am certainly privileged to be able to to coach them and privileged that they allow me to coach them the way I do,” Urquhart said. “We work hard every day at the little things. We talk all the time about how the little things add up to big things. The community is certainly pleased with what they have shown thus far and has sort of put the program back on the map at least early on.”
