Mt. Blue’s Lexi Mittelstadt goes after a loose ball as Skowhegan’s Jaycie Christopher follows in a basketball game in Farmington Saturday night. Tony Blasi/Sun Journal Buy this Photo

FARMINGTON — Having seven players step up and score was a pleasant surprise for Skowhegan coach Mike LeBlanc

With nearly everybody getting into the act, LeBlanc could rest easy knowing his team controlled the tempo, which led to a 51-39 over Mt. Blue (4-6) in girls basketball game Saturday night.

LeBlanc also liked his team’s defensive intensity and scrappy effort, which certainly played a role in slowing down Mt. Blue’s offense.

“We talked about it yesterday at practice, about getting the trash points and extra rebounds on the offensive end,” LeBlanc said. ”I think that’s what did it for us today.

“Seven kids scored, which hasn’t happened all year. We struggle to put the ball in the basket at times. We have that one dominant player, but we need to get the other kids able to score and contribute in some way. I think they did.” 

Sophomore point guard Jaycie Christopher said it was a rough night for her, but when the rest of the team filled in and got the job done, their help made her proud of her team. She still scored 12 points.

“Well, I didn’t shoot overly well, and I was really glad like a bunch of people were taking open shots, knocking them down. That was really good to see,” she said.

Mt. Blue’s Eva Stevens goes up for a shot as Skowhegan’s Sierra Carey (25) and Callaway Lepage (31) try to stop her in a girls basketball game in Farmington on Saturday night. Tony Blasi/Sun Journal Buy this Photo

“I am glad kids shot it with confidence and made one and kept shooting. It was great.  I didn’t shoot great, but just grind it out and find other ways to help my team.”

Senior Emma Duffy and freshman Callaway Lepage each scored 13 points for Skowhegan (4-6), which went 14-for-20 from the free-throw line. Duffy was money from the perimeter, knocking down four 3-pointers. LePage mad 7-of-8 at the charity stripe.

By halftime, Skowhegan was well on its way with a 26-15 halftime lead.

The Cougars struggled at times on offense, but they did almost get back into the game the fourth quarter.

“A lot of the little things just didn’t go well for us tonight,” Mt. Blue coach Fred Conlogue said.  We missed a lot of easy layups. I was really excited about the 12-4 run we made to get back into the game, but we didn’t execute the out of bounds play and we turned it over.

“They opened it up after that. His bench came up big. I felt we really played well at stretches. Eva Stevens held (Christopher) to 12 points. I thought Eva had a great game against her defensively, which was huge.”

Lexi Mittelstadt and Stevens ran the table for Mt. Blue. Mittelstadt turned in a game-high 19-point performance, collected 14 rebounds, dished out five assists and blocked four shots. Stevens finished with 11 points and six rebounds.