Annelise Dexter loses track of time with the hours she’s spent working on her midrange jump shot.
Whether it’s in practice during scrimmages, before or after to just get some extra work in, even at home, Dexter is relentless in the practicing of her craft.
There’s a smoothness to the shot and it looks easy. The snap of the wrist, elbows tucked in, the net snapping as the ball falls through for another two points.
“It’s one of my favorite shots to shoot,” she said. “I actually worked at it a lot during my freshman year since it was one of the only shots I could make.”
Dexter and her midrange were put to work Saturday afternoon in Pembroke’s 69-43 win over visiting Milford. Dexter, a sophomore forward, led the charge with her team-high 22 points and it was evident from the opening tip-off until she and the rest of the Spartans’ starters were sent to the bench with about four minutes left in the game.
In the opening eight minutes, senior forward Ashley Stephens opened the game with six points on three layups, one of which was a nice left-to-right reverse layup. The Spartans (3-1) started the game with a 12-2 run that was fueled by an aggressive press that forced turnovers. In the brief moment where the press failed to execute, a stolen pass or a ball tipped out of bounds stopped or slowed Milford’s possessions.
There was a brief moment, however, where it looked Milford was going to make it a game as it went on a 9-0 run to bring the game to a 12-11 score at the end of the first quarter. But it was just that, a brief moment, as Pembroke found its groove in and outscored Milford 19-9.
“I thought we played extremely well for this early in the year,” coach Steve Langevin said. “You could get your season shut down at any point and so every win you can get early is going to be huge.”
Both Dexter and Stephens (17 points) continued their offensive dominance into the second half as the Spartans made the game out of hand with 20 and 18 points in the third and fourth quarter, respectively.
With all the struggles that were dealt with a year ago between navigating through the pandemic while learning new systems courtesy a new coach, in year two Pembroke has grown comfortable and it’s showing in its play. In their three wins, the Spartans have scored an average of 57.6 points and the defense has only allowed an average of 34.3.
Even though the season is still in its infancy, if the Spartans can keep producing games like the one they had against Milford, they could make noise down the stretch.
Pembroke’s next game is Monday when it travels to Kennett. The Spartans will close out the 2021 portion of their schedule with games against Timberlane (Wednesday) and Bow (Dec. 27).