York girls basketball falls to Spruce Mountain in regional quarterfinals

PORTLAND, Maine - The York High School girls basketball team had a tall order on the schedule in Saturday morning's Class B South quarterfinal round at the Portland Expo.

Following a 20-point win over Leavitt in Wednesday's preliminary round, the 10th-seeded Wildcats were up against No. 2 Spruce Mountain - a team with only one loss all season.

The Wildcats fought as long as they could, and never backed down, but the Phoenix was able to pull away and advance to the semifinal round with a 64-44 victory.

"The kids played hard," York head coach Jess Stacy said. "We got down early, and (Spruce Mountain) has a lot of shooters. When we took away one, the next one would knock down a shot. Overall, I think the kids gave it their all. They knew we were coming in here as the No. 10 seed looking at the No. 2; I always tell them 'anything is possible,' but they worked hard."

Spruce Mountain (18-1) will play No. 3 Wells on Tuesday in the semifinals.

York's Ava Brent had a game-high 24 points and freshman Nya Avery scored 12.

Here are five highlights in York's season-ending loss

York depth showing early

Brent and McKayla Kortes, York's junior co-captains, both got in early foul trouble in the first quarter. Kortes picked up her second foul with 6:10 left in the quarter, and Brent picked up her second just 27 seconds later with York leading 5-2.

York was trailing 11-6 with roughly two minutes remaining in the quarter, but tied the game, 11-11, on a layup by Maddie Fitzgerald and a Maddy Raymond 3-pointer.

"It's nice to be able to go to the bench when two of your bigger players are in foul trouble and not feel like you're missing a beat," Stacy said. "We have kids who can come off the bench and do as much as the starting lineup. It was good that we still stayed in the game going to the bench, and still saw the same amount of effort."

"For them to get in the game, I thought it was awesome," Brent said. "Everyone played great."

Spruce grabs double-digit lead in second quarter

Spruce starting the second quarter on a 20-0 run and led 31-11 before a Kortes free throw with 2:40 left in the half ended the run. Spruce took a 31-15 lead into intermission.

"We were scrambling on defense trying to make turnovers," Stacy said. "They had their press that we struggled with. We practiced it a ton, we saw it and kind of got a little panicky. We're young, so there's a lot to build off from this."

A big difference in the first half was the free throw disparity as Spruce had 14 free throw attempts to York's six.

Not going down without a fight

Down 16 to begin the second half, Brent, who scored eight points in the fist half, was about to be even more dominant for the Wildcats in the third quarter.

Brent scored nine points in the quarter, and was doing it in a multitude of ways. She knocked down two 3-pointers and made a layup that she was fouled on, and she converted the free throw to complete the and-one opportunity.

"I just knew we had to win," Brent said. "During warm-ups I was hitting some shots, so I was just like why not just start shooting. Honestly, anytime I thought I was open I shot, which is what coach always tells us to do - if we're open, shoot it, so that's exactly what I did."

Brent scored another seven points in the fourth.

"(Brent) had a great game," Stacy said. "We look to our captains to set that fire in the team. I kept saying 'we need to play with some fire.' She hit some big shots, played really well and that's all I can ask of her."

Wildcats finish strong to qualify for tournament

York went 5-3 in its final eight games of the regular season, and was the last team to qualify for the tournament.

"We just started off slow (today), which is how we got behind," Brent said. "But, towards the end, we just wanted to have fun, that was our goal. We didn't even know if we were going to make the tournament, so we were super happy to get the opportunity to come out."

York, which advanced to the regional championship last season, finished the season at 8-12.

"Overall, I had a super fun time with the team," Brent said. "As a captain, I was really just hoping to lead the team. (Kortes) and I just really wanted (this season) to be a positive environment. Even if we lost some games, we just wanted 100 percent effort, that's what we always say; give 110 percent effort every game. I had a wicked fun season even though we lost her today. We're going to be great next year. This was kind of like a building year to get ready for next year."

Big group coming back

York will lose two players to graduation - Raymond and Carlie Welch, but will return 10.

"We have a lot to look forward to," Stacy said.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: York girls basketball falls to Spruce Mountain in regional tournament