BRANDON — The visiting Middlebury Union High School girls’ basketball team put on an impressive first-half display at Otter Valley on this past Saturday, taking a 38-7 lead at the break and cruising to a 65-29 victory over the Otters.

In that first half, the Tigers rattled the Otters with full-court pressure and converted 12 Otter turnovers into 10 transition points. They also hit five three-pointers, four by senior guard Lexi Whitney, while junior forward Solstice Binder hit the boards for six second-chance points and added six points and two assists on the break, both to senior forward Kassidy Brown.

OV FRESHMAN POINT guard Tegan Boynton brings the ball up while Tiger sophomore Isabel Quinn applies defensive pressure during a girls’ basketball game at Otter Valley on Saturday.
Independent photo/Steve James

In the first quarter, OV managed just a nifty drive from junior Leann Thomas. In the second quarter junior Marissa Dick scored on the break with an assist from Hannah Desabrais, senior forward Matelin LaPorte converted in the lane, and junior Breanna Bovey put in an offensive rebound — and that was it for the half as the Tigers swarmed the Otters on defense.

The Division II Tigers were coming off a 54-38 win at D-I St. Albans two days earlier in which they outplayed the Comets in the fourth quarter. Saturday’s victory pushed their record to 3-2, with both losses coming when Binder, a three-year starter, had to sit with an injury; she returned for the St. Albans game.

TIGER LOUISA ORTEN drives toward the basket during Saturday’s girls’ basketball game at Otter Valley. Orten led all scorers with 21 points.
Independent photo/Steve James

Binder said she believes the Tigers, who have a challenge at Fair Haven on Friday, are coming together.

“We’re feeling pretty good right now. I hope our coach is pretty happy with us,” Binder said. “I think this is a pretty good win for us. We haven’t had may wins like this before, so I think the team is pretty pumped, and I’m really excited for the rest of the season.”

Defense has made a difference, she said.

“We’ve been focusing on our defense a lot, the talk on defense, moving our feet, keeping our hands up. I think we’ve been doing a really good job of executing our defenses,” she said.

MUHS Coach Eric Carter said he expects even more from the Tigers on defense, citing “gaps” in it even while allowing the Otters just eight points in the first 16 minutes.

“We’re working on things. We’re still young,” he said. “Defense is where our focus needs to be. It’s where our scoring comes from.”

TIGER JUNIOR SOLSTICE Binder looks to make a move toward the basket, and Otter junior Breanna Bovey offers resistance during Saturday’s basketball game at Otter Valley.
Independent photo/Steve James

Otter Valley Coach Ray Counter said the Tigers dictated the pace with their defensive pressure, that his team tried to play as fast as the Tigers rather than at a more comfortable speed.

“I know we’re much better than that,” Counter said. “We were like deer in headlights today. We were trying to get them (the Otters) to slow down. That’s what they want you to do with the press. They want you to rush. Previously we’ve shown pretty good patience, but we seemed to rush everything today.”

With the Tigers mostly sticking to halfcourt player-on-player defense in the second half, the Otters began to gain some traction offensively. Bovey added six points after the break to finish with eight, while LaPorte added five to finish with seven. Junior Hannah Desabrais, Thomas and freshman Tegan Boynton all scored four points.

Counter foresees better to come, although the immediate future will offer more challenges: The Otters are set to host undefeated Windsor on Thursday evening and visit Mount Abraham (5-1) on Saturday afternoon.

“We just didn’t meet the challenge today, but I’m confident we’ll come back,” Counter said. “It’s coming together slowly. We’ve got to do it consistently. We see flashes of the team we can be, or the team I believe we can be. We’re just going to build off of that, and as we grow through the season we’ll get better.”

MUHS SOPHOMORE ISABEL Quinn controls the ball against the defense of OV junior Leann Thomas during Saturday’s girls’ basketball game at Otter Valley.
Independent photo/Steve James

MUHS ninth-grader Louisa Orten poured in 14 points in the second half and finished with 21 points to lead the Tigers. Whitney and Binder each scored 16, and Brown chipped in with eight points. Binder and Brown helped the Tigers earn a 39-29 edge on the boards, counting team rebounds. MUHS also won the turnover battle, committing 15 and forcing 22.

Binder said the Tigers are confident moving forward.

“We’ve really grown a lot from last year. We have a lot of strong players this year, a lot of players from JV that are helping us out on the bench,” she said. “I think we’re looking really good.”

OTTER JUNIOR MARISSA Dick and MUHS junior Solstice Binder battle for a rebound during Saturday’s girls’ basketball game at Otter Valley.
Independent photo/Steve James