Grace LaBree has taken her game to a new level. And the Hampden Academy girls basketball team is the beneficiary.
The 6-foot-4 center had 12 points and 10 rebounds, both game-highs, in the Broncos’ 37-27 win over Bangor on Tuesday night. She also had two blocked shots and her presence in the paint forced the Rams to alter several shots.
Hampden Academy’s win was its ninth in a row and the Broncos improved to 10-1.
LaBree entered the game leading Class A North in shooting percentage at 69 percent and tied for the lead in blocked shots with 2.2. She was 15th in scoring at 10.2 points per game and sixth in rebounding at 7.6.
The senior is in her second season at Hampden Academy after transferring from Orono High School. She played her freshman season at Brewer High.
“The one thing she has done better over last year is she has been more assertive and more of a presence,” said Hampden Academy coach Nick Winchester. “Sometimes last year, she had more of a tendency to defer and allow other people to take over.”
He said beginning with the 58-36 win at Old Town five games ago, LaBree has been “super assertive and very aggressive.
“She has wanted the basketball, and that makes us a different team when we can do that,” Winchester added, referring to getting the ball inside to LaBree.
Winchester pointed out that LaBree has averaged close to 15 points and 10 rebounds during this recent stretch.
“We started to move things in the right direction when we started playing basketball inside-out, and that obviously starts with Grace,” said Winchester.
He noted that when LaBree starts scoring inside, opponents have to send more players to try to neutralize her and that enables her to pass the ball out to open shooters.
“Things are going good right now,” said LaBree. “I’m really trying to step up and be more assertive.
“Last year, I was getting used to my role on the team and now I know it and I know what I can improve on,” said LaBree.
She said she has developed a good on-court chemistry with the guards.
“I’m happy with the way it’s going with the guards. They know how to work with me,” LaBree said. “They see me more and I’m able to realize who’s open.”
Her teammates know that she’s going to make a pass out to them when she draws multiple defenders down low, she said, and she knows when to take the ball to the post.
“And I’m going to fight for every rebound,” LaBree added.
Being from Glenburn, which is a town without a high school, LaBree had her choice of several high schools.
She said attending three high schools “has been difficult” but that Hampden Academy has been the right fit for her.
“My team has been like a family for me. They have been through everything with me, inside and outside of basketball,” LaBree said.
She said after going from a bigger school in Brewer to a smaller one in Orono, she needed “a bigger feeling” again which led her to transfer to Hampden Academy.
She has earned a partial scholarship to NCAA Division II school Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester where she will join 2024-25 Miss Maine Basketball recipient Madelynn Deprey from Caribou. Deprey, a first team Bangor Daily News All-Schoolgirl selection, is a freshman at SNHU.
LaBree said she talked a lot to SNHU head coach Karen Pinkos and she had a very similar coaching style to Winchester.
“It felt right,” said LaBree, who added that she played on a fall basketball team with Deprey and they have talked a lot since she committed to SNHU.
The Broncos will host 0-11 Mt. Blue of Farmington at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
LaBree said for the rest of the season, she is hoping the Broncos will “run a fast game and I’ll be able to see my guards, they’ll be able to see me and we can end up with the gold ball.”
The gold ball goes to the state champion.