GARDINER — Down 21-20 at halftime, the Gardiner girls basketball team collected itself in its locker room, took a breath and got its act together.

The Tigers didn’t get too high or too low in the second half. They simply went out, and with strong defensive play and multi-player attack on offense, beat Skowhegan 43-34 in a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A game on Friday night at the Bragoli Gym.

It was the collective effort of a veteran group that hopes to take the next step in a new season.

“We’ve been working for this in practice every day, we’ve been working on communication and working together,” said Gardiner senior Lydia Gero, who scored a team-high 12 points. “We’re finally coming together and proving it.”

Senior Taryn Nichols scored nine points for Gardiner (2-0), while senior Emilee Brown and freshman Molly Takatsu each added six points. Natalie Cooke led the River Hawks (0-2) with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Allie Frey added seven points and five rebounds.

Gardiner trailed throughout the first half, struggling with turnovers while it was trying to push its offense down the floor. Gero helped keep the Tigers in the game by scoring 10 of her 12 points in the half. Trailing 21-20 at halftime, the Tigers were in need of a strong message and a reset on their game plan.

“Sometimes we need to hear things we don’t want to hear (at halftime) and it helps bring the energy up, we hear what we need to do better,” Gero said. “We listen, we do it and we just make it happen.”

Gardiner’s Addy Serber gets double teamed by Skowhegan’s Lauren Moore (33) and Allie Frey (32) during a girls basketball game Friday in Gardiner. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Gardiner made it happen with strong defensive play, getting in the middle of passing lanes and forcing 30 turnovers. The Tigers outscored the River Hawks 17-6 in the third quarter, taking the lead on a 3-pointer by Brown. An 11-0 run in the period helped lengthen the lead.

“I’m really happy with our performance in the second half,” Gardiner head coach Britney Gero said. “We were able to make adjustments, support each other, work harder and make the right moves defensively to then turn it on offensively. (Defense) is what we really focused on (in practice), I’m so happy to see it translate into the game today.”

Gardiner carries six seniors, and nine upperclassmen, on its roster. It’s a group that finished 8-11 last season, falling to Hampden Academy in the A North quarterfinals. But with years of experience together on the floor, the Tigers are gaining confidence.

“We’re finally clicking, and chemistry (has been key),” Lydia Gero said. “The starting five and half the bench has played together since third grade. This year is our year. We’re all there for each other, we support each other, we bring each other up. Nothing is negative. We’re always pushing each other, and I think that’s our biggest (strength).”

“We have a deep bench,” Britney Gero added. “We have some really strong younger kids, too. We stick together mentally, and we can play a lot of kids.”

The River Hawks, who went 9-10 last year with a trip to the A North quarterfinals, are opposite of Gardiner from a roster perspective. Losing several players to graduation in recent years, the Rivers Hawks are young, with Frey the team’s lone senior to go along with eight freshmen and two sophomores. Though down in the fourth quarter, with Cooke fouling out with more than two minutes remaining, Skowhegan showed grit, clawing back as best it could.

“We’ve got kids who haven’t had a lot of (varsity) minutes, but we’ll get better,” said Skowhegan head coach Mike LeBlanc. “Once Natalie went out, I don’t think we had a rebound. You can’t have that. You have to pick each other up and work a little extra hard.”