Defending state champions cruise in season opener

The 2019-20 girls basketball season started exactly where it left off, with another Maine West victory.  

Even with two new starters, replacing Vanessa Reyes and all-everything Rachel Kent, the Warriors controlled the tempo, forced turnovers, all en route to yet another win, this time 57-43 over the Hersey Huskies.

“It’s a different team, it’s different personnel,” said Maine West head coach Kim deMarigny. “They learn things at different paces so the conditioning will come but there has been a whole lot of teaching going on.”

Although the outcome was never in doubt, Maine West showed growing pains throughout the contest.  They turned the ball over frequently, shot free throws poorly (13-25) and looked very tentative during the first quarter.

Maine West led 9-4 at the end of the first quarter thanks in part to University of Oregon bound Angela Dugalic who scored eight of her teams nine in the opening frame.

After the slow start, Maine West opened the second quarter with a new sense of defensive intensity that was missing during the first eight minutes. The early laid back approach “was not the plan” added DeMarigny whose team “turned it up like we wanted” 

Before Hersey knew what hit them, Maine West did manage to find their second gear, scoring 21 points in the second quarter to give the Warriors a 30-13 lead at the half.

Maine West maintained a 20+ point lead without much trouble in the second half and it was only when Coach deMarigny cleared her bench in the fourth quarter that Hersey found a little bit of momentum to minimize the deficit to the final, 57-43 scoreline.

The entire Warrior team showed great enthusiasm as several newcomers had an opportunity to contribute. Besides the usual suspects in Dugalic (17 points, 10 rebounds) and Dylan VanFleet (13 points) new starters Brianna Hernandez (10 points) and Melissa Gomez flashed some potential in the season opener.

“There’s a bunch of new kids, so a lot of people are going to have their first of everything out here. I started Melissa Gomez, and people will ask who is Melissa Gomez, well, she has worked her tail off all summer so she deserves to start,” concluded deMarigny.

“There’s no more Rachel Kent and we have to figure out which role people are going to play now.  When they figure that out, then we will be good.”