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O´Donnell sparks Waterville

From staff reports Wednesday, December 19, 2012

WATERVILLE -- With leading rebounder Alexa Frame out with a high ankle sprain, the Waterville girls basketball team had a noticeably different look to its 2-3 zone defense. In the middle, and playing in the paint, was 5-foot-7 point guard Colleen O´Donnell.

"It´s different," O´Donnell said. "I knew I had to be tough underneath and get a lot of rebounds. So I really tried to box people out and grab the ball."

Despite missing nearly half of the fourth quarter will foul trouble, O´Donnell finished with 17 points, 17 rebounds and six steals. Her last steal became a three-point play with 14.3 seconds left, lifting the Purple Panthers to a 38-37 victory over Maine Central Institute on Tuesday night.

"She rebounds the ball very well," Waterville coach Rob Rodrigue said. "She´s active and she´s athletic. She gets off the floor to attack the ball and then she´s dangerous from there, because she´s able to rip it out and start transition."

O´Donnell had 15 rebounds in the first half alone. In the final minute of the second quarter, O´Donnell got three consecutive offensive rebounds before drawing a foul, leading MCI coach Jason Allen to comment on the sideline, "She´s a one-man wrecking crew right now." O´Donnell followed that with a steal and a basket, and when Jenna Gagnon (13 points) threw in a 28-footer at the buzzer, Waterville led 18-14 at the half.

The Panthers (1-3) pushed that lead to 23-15 before MCI went on a 10-0 run. With 6:38 left in the fourth quarter, the score was tied at 25 when O´Donnell went to the bench with her fourth foul. The Huskies missed their first 18 field goal attempts of the fourth quarter and Waterville outscored MCI 8-0 with O´Donnell on the bench. Michaela DeVogt hit two huge 3-pointers in that stretch.

One again, MCI (0-4) came back. Ashley Alton (12 points) knocked down a 3-pointer and Brianna Losee (12 points) buried another 3 to tie the game at 35 with 1:05 to play. After two Waterville turnovers, MCI missed two shots but had the ball under its own basket with 19.6 seconds left. O´Donnell stole the inbounds pass, went the length of the floor and hit a layup while drawing the foul. Her foul shot gave Waterville a 38-35 lead.

"No one went to the ball, so I just took it and knew I had to go all the way," O´Donnell said. "So I did."

MCI called timeout to set up a game-tying shot. Losee tossed up a hurried 3-pointer from the right corner at the buzzer that was off line, but Gagnon was called for a foul. Losee made two of three foul shots with 0.2 seconds left for the final score.

"We wanted to get either Brianna or Ashley a look," Allen said. "They did a really good job of taking away Ashley at the top. When Brianna first released it, I thought it had a chance to go in. We got we what we wanted; they did a pretty good job of defending it, too."