A rough first quarter was merely a bump in the road for the Central Maine Community College women’s basketball team, which eventually cruised to a 73-49 victory over NHTI in a Yankee Small College Conference tournament semifinal Saturday at Kirk Hall in Auburn.

The top-ranked Mustangs shot just 27.3 percent from the floor in the first quarter, and led the Lynx 18-10. But they were able to combat that better shooting in the second quarter and stouter defense in the third to pull away.

Central Maine Community College (Stock photo)

“I think a lot of it was shaking off a lot — and I mean a lot — of rust from our 13-day layover. It’s been 13 days since our last game, so that’s the second-longest gap between games we’ve had all year, and we just weren’t quite ready for that,” CMCC coach Andrew Morong said.

Going 5-for-8 from the foul line in the first quarter helped the Mustangs open up their lead.

“You know, eight foul shots in any quarter is great, especially the first one,” Morong said. “So we really set the tone that, basically said here’s how physical the game’s going to be played. We’re going to establish ourselves in the paint. We got one of their better players in foul trouble right off the bat.”

Melissa Martel picked up three fouls in the opening period for the Lynx, and scored three of her 11 points before having to sit.

The Mustangs shot 55.6 percent in the second quarter, with five of their 10 baskets coming from the bench. The lead was 39-23 at halftime.

Martel was the only NHTI player to make a basket in the third, and the Lynx fell behind 52-30 heading into the fourth.

Brooke Reynolds helped close out the win for the Mustangs with five of her game-high 17 rebounds in the final frame. She had 12 of them at the offensive end, and she added 10 points.

“She kind of made me eat my words a little bit because I told her I didn’t think she played a very good game, but that was before I looked at the box score,” Morong said. “She just wasn’t really looking for her own shot. Like she wasn’t looking for offense. She was just trying to set other people up, and we don’t want that. We want her to be strong inside and draw fouls.

“She was just everywhere. Just typical of Brooke Reynolds. She just does a lot of the dirty work, and never gets enough credit for it, from myself or from other opponents.”

Alex Bessey scored a game-high 15 points for CMCC, while Natalie Thurber added nine off the bench and helped get the Mustangs’ tempo going, according to Morong.

Eraleena Gethers-Hairston contributed eight points and seven rebounds in a reserve role, and Morong said she was like “the E of old. That reminded me of 2016-17, when she started for us.”

Mary Grzanna led the Lynx with 14 points off the bench.

CMCC advances to Sunday’s tournament final against in-state rival Southern Maine CC, which is the No. 2 seed.

“We certainly can’t play with that same amount of rust, that’s for starters,” Morong said. “We’ve had some battles with them. Both teams know each other pretty well, so it’s going to come down to discipline and execution.”

CMCC MEN BEATEN AT BUZZER

Despite playing on their home court, the Central Maine CC men were underdogs in their YSCC semifinal, and the score at halftime said as much. The Mustangs were down by 12, but they mounted a comeback in the second half, only to fall to top-ranked NHTI on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in an 83-81 loss, which ended CMCC’s season.

Mark McDonald’s layup gave the Mustangs an 81-80 lead with 30 seconds left, but Deric Jackson grabbed the rebound of Sam Dorissaint’s air ball before firing up a fall-away 3 in the final seconds that went through the hoop at the buzzer to eliminate CMCC.

“He just caught it, and with three seconds left on the clock just threw it up, and it just happened to go in,” CMCC coach Dave Gonyea said. “I guess you could call in a lucky shot, but it wasn’t a lucky shot because the kid’s quite a player.”

Gonyea called it a “typical NHTI-CM game, it’s a battle back and forth, and may the best man win.”

“It’s the kind of game nobody should have lost because everybody played so darn well,” Gonyea said. “But they had some great performances from Dorissaint and Deric Jackson played well.”

Dorissaint scored 24 of his game-high 28 points in the first half, on eight 3s, helping the Lynx to a 49-37 lead.

“We didn’t defend him well. Other than that we contained them pretty well,” Gonyea said. “I said (at halftime), ‘I think we’re in a great spot.'”

The Mustangs switched to a man-to-man defense in the second half and made it their mission to deny Dorissaint the ball, “and that worked out pretty well,”Gonyea said .

Elijah Barbour took his turn making long-distance shots in the second half for the Mustangs off the bench, hitting four 3s after halftime. He finished with a team-tying 24 points. Josh Chery also hit that mark in what Gonyea called “the best game he’s played all year long for us.”

Jackson finished with 26 points for the Lynx.

CONFERENCE HONORS

Before the YSCC semifinal games were played Saturday the conference held its awards banquet at Hilton Garden Inn Riverwatch in Auburn.

On the women’s side, Brooke and Jordyn Reynolds of CMCC were named first-team all-conference selections, while Bessey was a second-team selection. SMCC’s Amanda Brett was named the player of the year, and Seawolves coach Katie Bergeron won the coach of the year award.

Chery earned second-team honors on the men’s side. SMCC’s Atencio Martin was named the player of the year, and Vermont Tech’s Alex Tyrrell won coach of the year.