NEWPORT – From Old Town’s first basket, there was little doubt the battle would boil down to Nokomis’ backcourt and the Indians’ frontcourt.

And in the end, it was the three big girls in front who led Old Town to its third consecutive Big East win with a 58-37 victory over Nokomis of Newport in schoolgirl basketball action Friday night.

Six of the Indians’ first 11 points were scored from inside six feet, before the frontcourt of Andrea Pardilla, Kendra Brown, and Abbi Susi finished with a combined 38 points.

“We’re pretty big,” Old Town coach Garry Spencer said. “We’ve got a pretty good size advantage, and we told them, `Let’s use what wepretty good size advantage, and we told them, `Let’s use what we have and pound it inside the paint and see what happens.’ ”

What happened was every coach’s worst defensive nightmare as the Indians racked up 15 of their 24 field goals from within six feet of the basket, as 5-foot 10 Susi led all scorers with 16 points.

“Those three work together very well. They’re always looking for each other,” Spencer said. “Sometimes I think they pass too much.”

Passing and defensive lapses spelled the downfall of a young Nokomis team which turned over the ball too much for first-year coach Earl Anderson’s tastes.

“We made a lot of bad decisions, a lot of unforced turnovers,” Anderson said. “We turned the ball over a lot and most of them were unforced.”

Operating out of an eight-point deficit at the half, Nokomis put together a 6-2 run on the back of a Kiley Turner 16-footer and Katie Nye hitting three of four foul shots in the first three minutes, but Old Town came back with two unanswered baskets and a Pardilla foul shot.

“There were plays here and there that we didn’t make and it gave them some separation, and I thought if we made those plays, we could stay in it the whole way, but we didn’t,” Anderson said.

Using a strict man-to-man defense with a second-half press, Old Town kept Nokomis guards Kate Burgess and Nye honest, holding them to 14 and 12 points, respectively.

The first 3:05 of the fourth quarter put the finishing touches on the Old Town victory with an 11-0 run as Suci scored six points and Denise Case added five of her 10 total points, and the Indians piled up a 52-29 lead with 4:55 to play.

“We didn’t defend inside well at times, but you’ve got to give credit to Old Town because they do some very nice things,” Anderson said.

Indians 58, Warriors 37

Old Town Nokomis

Name G AG F AF TP Name G AG F AF TP

Chaisson 0 0 2 2 2 Burgess 6 9 1 3 14

Emerson 1 2 0 0 3 J. Nye 0 1 0 0 0

Case 4 6 0 0 10 Carnebuci 0 1 0 0 0

Cuarisma 1 1 1 1 3 Gabianelli 0 0 0 0 0

Thornton 0 2 0 0 0 K. Nye 4 15 3 4 12

MacDonald 0 1 0 0 0 Coppa 0 0 1 2 1

Dolley 1 2 0 0 2 Turner 3 5 0 0 6

Crean 0 0 0 0 0 Pelkey 0 1 0 0 0

Perry 0 0 0 0 0 Dorman 0 0 0 0 0

Pardilla 6 13 1 2 13 Madigan 0 0 0 0 0

Brown 4 7 1 2 9 Crudell 2 5 0 0 4

Susi 7 11 2 2 16 Nickerson 0 1 0 0 0

Totals 24 45 7 9 58 Totals 15 38 5 9 37

Old Town (3-0) 11 25 39 58

Nokomis (0-1) 6 17 29 37

3-pt. goals: Old Town (3-6): Emerson 1-2, Case 2-3, Pardilla 0-1; Nokomis (2-12): Burgess 1-3, K. Nye 1-8, Turner 0-1

Preliminary: Nokomis JVs 40, Old Town JVs 25