By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

As Coach Billie L’Heureux watched her squad play with aggressiveness and confidence in the opening eight minutes of Saturday’s game against Lake Region, she wondered, “where has this been?”

The Fryeburg Academy coach hadn’t seen that level of play since opening night against Greely. The Raiders forced turnovers, scored in transition and knocked down a 3-pointer to surge to an 11-4 lead against their rivals.

At one point, Fryeburg built a double-digit advantage — a far cry from the first meeting with the Lakers which they were dominated in the paint and lost by double digits.

Saturday was different.

Lake Region stormed back and tied the game 40-40 with 4:22 left in regulation on consecutive spin moves and buckets in the lane by senior Elle Hall.

But, the Raiders rode the hot hand of sophomore Sydney Shaw, who was calm and cool at the foul line, sinking 6-of-6 foul shots down the stretch as Fryeburg held off Lake Region 49-46.

“It could have gone either way at the end. They hit some big shots they needed to make, and we were fortunate to make our foul shots,” Coach L’Heureux said. “Sydney is a solid free throw shooter, but she has been playing a little hesitant. I forget she’s a sophomore. She is coming into a different school, new kids, trying to learn her place. She fits in very well. I’ve told her she needs to be more aggressive, and look to get to the basket, which will open things up for other people. She did a nice job today.”

Lake Region Coach Paul True was short-handed in the backcourt with starting point guard Abby Lavoie out. Lavoie was a major sparkplug in the first meeting, scoring off steals, as well as driving the lane and dishing off to “the bigs” as the bigger Laker front line dominated the Raiders.

LR senior guard Bri Sargent had a big day, scoring 13 points and playing tenacious defense to bring her team back in the second half.

Meanwhile, the Raiders had finally reached full strength.

“This is our second game which we had everyone, and the first week of practice that we had our entire squad (due to Covid, illness and injuries). So that has made a difference in practice allowing us to do things we haven’t been able to do. We have some kids getting their endurance back and able to play more, which showed here with some kids scoring that haven’t been,” Coach L’Heureux said. “In some ways, it has been worse than last year. Last year, you never knew if they would shut it down and we were just thankful to be playing. This year, we’ve been playing but we just don’t know who we are going to have playing. You could walk in and four kids tell you they are out, not just a day maybe 5 or 10 days.”

The coach added, “We concentrated on effort, enthusiasm, boxing out and rebounding. We don’t have a force inside. That’s where they (Lake Region) really hurt us in the first meeting. We focus on that, and if they were going to beat us, it was going to be with the outside shot.”

A Camden Jones 3-pointer to end the first quarter got the Raiders off to the hot start Coach L’Heureux hoped for, 11-4. Emily Walker kept the momentum going with a trey to open the second frame as Fryeburg went on a 12-5 run to go up 23-9 as senior Brooke Emery converted on two baseline drives and sank a pair of foul shots with 2:36 left.

Turnovers turned the tide of momentum as the Lakers closed out the half with a 10-2 run keyed by Sargent, who made a nice dish to center Ava Smith for an easy bucket and then Sargent scored the final six points to close the gap to 25-19.

“I kept telling them not to look at the scoreboard, but to just keep playing the way we had talked about to win the game. Stop throwing the ball away, take care of it. Pretend it is your cellphone because I know you’re not going to lose that,” Coach L’Heureux said. “I knew Lake Region is scrappy and they will not give, they play until the very end, which they did. And, I knew we couldn’t let up if we were going to win.”

The final 16 minutes featured spurts by each club.

FA went up by 7 points as Emery drilled a tough jumper, and Shaw drained an open 3-pointer in the left corner.

LR tied it at 32-32 as Sargent followed up a missed lay-up, and Becca Caron converted an offensive rebound. 

Shaw’s quick first step resulted in a driving hoop to end the quarter, putting FA up 34-32.

Walker opened up some daylight for the Raiders when she knocked down a 3-pointer to start the fourth as FA showed good inside-out passing. LR was hit with a technical foul with 6:05 left after a blocked shot in the lane. Emery sank 3-of-4 foul shots to put the Raiders up 40-34.

LR went to its power game as Smith and Hall each scored twice to tie the game.

In the final 2 minutes, the Lakers kept the pressure on as Smith (14 points, 7 rebounds) hauled down two big offensive rebounds and scored twice to make it a 1-point game.

But, Sydney Shaw was also up to the challenge. Showing no jitters of a rookie in a big spot, Shaw salted away the win with four consecutive foul shots in the final 1:23.

“I hope this will build our confidence,” Coach L’Heureux said. “We’ve been saying all year, we’re either going to win or we’re going to learn. Maybe, it’s going to click now.”

Raiders (49): Brooke Emery 16 points, Sydney Shaw 12 (7-of-8 from the foul line), Emma Rydman 8, Emily Walker 7, Camden Jones 5 and Shelby Purslow 1.

Lakers (46): Ava Smith 14 points, Bri Sargent 13, Elle Hall 9, Shelby-Lynne Sheldrick 6, Becca Caron 2, Liz Smith 2.