Girls basketball: Young Royals make early progress
Published: 12-18-2024 6:01 PM |
CANAAN — The Mascoma High girls basketball team picked up its first win of the season on Tuesday, knocking off Newfound, 34-28. It was a victory that the Royals needed — even just three games into the season.
Only 24 hours earlier, Mascoma was routed by 64 points in a loss to Fall Mountain. The Royals, who saw eight players depart the program due to graduation following a 9-9 campaign and a NHIAA Division III quarterfinals berth last season, are rebuilding with a young squad, one that features just two upperclassmen.
But first-year coach Mark Rockwood and two of the team’s captains, junior Grace Clifford and sophomore Molly Gray, all echoed a similar sentiment postgame: Mascoma isn’t viewing this season as a total reset.
“Coach (Rockwood) always says that we’re a team that works a lot with a little,” said Clifford, who had only six points in the win but who operates as the team’s floor general and the heart of its defense. “That’s definitely what our team did tonight.”
Said Gray: “It feels really good, because I know that we have worked really hard. We’re not working with a lot, so when we get to see those skills put to use and come together as a team to get a win, it feels good.”
Mascoma, which runs a short eight-player rotation, is never going to quit; that much Rockwood made clear.
Even when the group’s legs are shot during the second game of a back-to-back. Even when three players foul out of the game. Even when the team’s offense, still working through some early-season kinks, goes through extended scoring droughts.
The Royals largely lived at the charity stripe in the first half of Tuesday’s game. So did Newfound. The two teams’ combined makes at the free-throw line (10) nearly doubled the number of total made field goals (six) in the first half, with Mascoma clinging to a narrow 12-11 advantage entering halftime.
Article continues after...
Yesterday's Most Read Articles




Clifford scored her first points, a 3-pointer, following an offensive rebound in the third quarter, providing the Royals with the game’s first two-possesion lead. But Newfound would close the third quarter on a 9-2 run to enter the final frame with a slim 21-19 lead.
That’s when Mascoma’s “biggest weapon” — its work ethic, according to Rockwood — came into play. As players dropped like flies in the fourth period due to foul trouble, Rockwood was forced to go deeper into his bench. That meant increased playing time for a couple of Royals who are still adjusting to varsity action, including freshman guard Tori Petty.
Petty had played in the preceding jayvee game between the two teams and made a brief cameo late in the second quarter of the varsity game, highlighted by a sequence in which she made a steal and went the length of the floor to lay it in.
After freshman forward Lyla Jacobson and Clifford canned consecutive threes, allowing Mascoma to reclaim a lead midway through the fourth quarter, it was Petty’s turn. The 5-foot-4 guard scored a transition layup and then buried a mid-range jumper to cap a 10-0 Royals run.
Newfound responded with a few buckets, trimming the deficit to three points with under a minute remaining, but a pair of free throws from Petty — who finished with a game-high eight points — helped ice the game.
Gray acknowledged that the Royals were “all beat” following their back-to-back games but expressed optimism about the team’s ability to respond and lift each other up after such a resounding defeat on Monday.
The Royals are still sorting through some early hitches on both ends of the floor, which comes with the territory for such a young squad. The offense had a tendency to stagnate against Newfound’s 2-3 zone; defensive rebounds was occasionally a hindrance, too.
Mascoma’s depth will be challenged should the team’s foul troubles persist throughout the season as well.
“We were in a dogfight the whole game,” said Rockwood, who also coaches the girls soccer team. “We made some mistakes, we fouled out some key players, but we never quit. We struggled, but we never quit.”
Despite the roster turnover from last season, Mascoma’s goal this year is to make the playoffs. Regardless of what anyone outside the program says — “the doubters” as Clifford called them — this team is focused on reaching that bar.
“We have to have a goal,” Rockwood said. “And rather than setting the goal low, let’s shoot for the moon.”
Alex Cervantes can be reached at acervantes@vnews.com or 603-727-7302.