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Sports

Coleman Becomes Portland's All-Time Leading Scorer

Scores 30 in rout of Old Lyme in Shoreline quarterfinal

When you are the No. 1 seed, your opening-round game can sometimes be your toughest.  Typically your opponent will enter the game with a nothing-to-lose attitude and cause you the most headaches.

Portland coach Nick Chaconis knows this all too well and he had his Lady Highlanders prepared for Saturday night's Shoreline Conference tournament quarterfinal game against visiting Old Lyme as they stormed out to a commanding 21-8 lead by the end of the first quarter and coasted from there for a 64-39 victory.

"Everyone did the little things," senior Lindsey Dionne said. "We scored, had nice passes, rebounds, steals, if we just do that then we should be OK."

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Advancing to the semifinal against East Hampton was not the only story to this game, however.

Senior Kelly Coleman scored 30 points to become the Portland girls' all-time leading scorer, surpassing the record of 1,515 held by Colleen McBrien set in 1994-98. 

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The game was stopped momentarily as Coleman was presented with a ceremonial basketball commemorating the milestone.

"I had no idea that I was appoaching the scoring record," Coleman said.  "I was with my friends earlier [Saturday] and they were saying stuff like, 'Kelly you need to get 20 tonight,' and then they said 15, but someone said that wasn't enough, so I didn't know what they were talking about."

Said Chaconis: "As I've told you before, Kelly works extremely hard on her game and many of those points have not come easily."

Once the dust settled, Portland (18-3) had won this one-sided affair behind a dominant offensive performance by his two senior co-captains. Coleman and Dionne combined for 49 points.

"We got off to a great start and that gave us a cushion early," Chaconis said.  "You never know when a team comes in with nothing to lose and they can be your toughest opponent.  We know it is going to get a lot tougher as the tournament goes on.  Tonight we wanted to stay fundamentally sound.  Kelly and Lindsey did a great job scoring the ball and leading our team on both sides of the floor."

Portland did however lose its focus during the second quarter and turned the ball over on several occasions, but were able to maintain a 14-point lead going into intermission, 33-19. 

Coach Cone, as he is affectionately referred to, must have gotten something off his chest in the locker room about taking care of the basketball better. The Lady Highlanders responded by limiting Old Lyme (11-11) to three third-quarter points while opening up a 51-22 lead.  The last basket of the quarter came on a layup by Dionne off a sweet touch pass by sophomore Katie Coleman. 

"I let the team know that lapses on offense and defense at this time of the year means that our season ends and we are collecting uniforms," Chaconis said.

By the end of three quarters, Kelly Coleman had 26 points and Dionne 17.  Much of their scoring success had to do with how well junior guards, Meaghan Rodgers and Alyssa Unikewicz ran the offense.  They kept the floor spread, set up plays and ran a multidude of high-low schemes and give and go's with precision.

By the time Chaconis began pulling his starters out of the game at the 3:25 mark of the fourth quarter, the Highlanders had a 64-29 advantage.   

Portland will play against East Hampton in the semifinals on Tuesday night at Coginchaug High School in Durham at a time to be determined. The Bellringers defeated Portland in the regular season, 47-43 in overtime.

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