Mavs, Lady Mavs crush Nashua

The North Country Mavericks and Lady Mavericks each defeated their Nashua counterparts on Friday, January 31, in Saco.

The night was Saco High School's senior night and both Brady Albus and Dustin Ostrom were honored.

"It feels really great honestly," Ostrom said when asked about getting a win that night. "You can't ask for anything better. I think the crowd kept the energy up and it was great to play with all of that support."

The Lady Mavericks won their game 62-20 and the Mavericks won their game 59-33.

After the girls' win, the PCN caught up with captain Kia Wasson and Jaydyn Erickson. Erickson was asked about their key to victory.

"Moving on offense, keeping everybody occupied and trying to get open," Erickson said.

The Lady Mavericks were led by Jaycee Erickson who scored 19 points. Kaitlyn McColly had 17 points, Kia Wasson had 11 points.

Early in the game, Nashua was able to stick around, playing tough in the paint, bullying their way to four baskets underneath. Jaydyn Erickson, was able to score a few early field goals from mid range, helping jumpstart North Country's offense. The score at the end of the quarter was 15-9.

"I just kept telling myself that this one is going in," Jaydyn Erickson said.

Despite early struggles in the paint, the Lady Mavericks eventually gained traction and switched up their defense, a move that helped them outscore Nashua 30-4 in the second quarter.

"At first we were playing a 1-2-2, then we decided that it wasn't working because it was getting them a lot of shots in the post, so we switched to man and that seemed to work a lot better for us," Wasson said.

The Lady Mavericks headed into halftime with a 45-13 lead. Eventually North Country was able to trigger a running clock midway through the third quarter, a period in which the Lady Mavs outscored Nashua 15-4. The Lady Porcupines outscored North Country 3-2 in the fourth quarter.

Though she did not score a point, Kora LaBrie forced a few changes in possession in the win, thanks to quick thinking and quick hands.

"Kora has great effort," Erickson said. "She goes 100 percent in practice everyday. She pushes everyone. She is a great player and she is going to do great things."

The team will face Scobey on Friday, February 7, in Hinsdale, at 7:30 p.m. Scobey is currently on an 11-game win streak and just edged out North Country 38-36 the last time the teams met in Scobey on Friday, January 10.

"We will have to stay calm under pressure with their press and be smart on offense and stay low on defense," Wasson said.

MAVERICKS

The Maverick boys were able to jump out to a 16-2 lead at the conclusion of the first quarter, and despite their offense sputtering to only scoring five in the second half, the Mavs outscored Nashua 38- 22 in the second half.

"We came out, worked out, and got it done," sophomore captain Loden Idler said.

The Mavericks were led by Idler who scored 25 points. Junior Beau Simonson scored 14 points, and senior Dustin Ostrom scored 14.

Idler gave a shoutout to his teammate Jon Rey Taylor who was able to drive in the paint and rack up several assists that night.

"Jon Rey was showing out tonight," Idler said. "He was finding guys out there pretty easily and he was dropping dimes."

Nashua relied on their height in and out of the perimeter that night.

"We just had to jump stop, ball fake and slow things down," Jesse Lee said.