Almost a year after losing the Class A state championship game to Mt. Ararat, the Hampden Academy girls basketball team took their revenge.
The Broncos used stifling defense and a balanced scoring attack to knock off the top-seeded Eagles from Topsham 33-26 in Friday night’s Northern Maine Class A regional final at the Augusta Civic Center. Mt. Ararat was moved to the North division after winning the South last season.
The second-seeded Broncos (17-4) advanced to the Feb. 28 state championship game in Portland against the winner of Saturday’s Southern Maine final between No. 1 Cheverus of Portland and No. 3 South Portland.
Clockwise, from top left: The Hampden Lady Broncos celebrate their win over Mt. Ararat in the Class A North championship game held at the Augusta Civic Center on Friday evening.; Jenna Jensen of Mt. Ararat fights to retain possession of the basketball from Hampden Academy’s Eve Wiles in the second quarter of the Class A North Championship game. Jenna Jensen of Mt. Ararat fights of Hampden’s Naia Studley under the hoop in the second quarter of the Class A North Championship game.; Jaelyn Jensen of Mt. Ararat fights to get off a two point shot early in the second quarter of the Class A North Championship game against the Hampden Broncos. Credit: Josh O’Donnell / BDN
Junior guard Aubrey Shaw and freshman guard Naia Studley each scored 10 points to lead Hampden’s offense. Studley’s two free throws with 41 seconds left in the game turned a still iffy 5-point lead into a 33-26 advantage. Hampden’s defense did the rest, holding Mt. Ararat scoreless the rest of the way.
Studley’s 3-pointer from the right baseline off an inbounds pass from junior guard Eve Wiles gave the Broncos their first lead of the game at 20-18 with 3:30 left in the third quarter.
Wiles hit a 3-pointer from the left baseline with 1:24 left in the third period to up Hampden’s lead to 23-18.
Mt. Ararat senior forward Julianna Allen answered with a low power bucket to pull her team within 23-20 at the end of the quarter, but Wiles opened the fourth quarter with a lane runner, then Shaw rebounded an Eagles miss and scored a layup off a pass from junior guard Kate Adams to make it 27-20.
“That’s our offense all year long,” said Hampden coach Nick Winchester after his team cut down the nets. “We’re sort of an equal opportunity offense. One night it will be one player and another night it could be someone else, that’s what makes us hard to defend.”
Hampden’s defense, especially around the basket, proved to be the difference in the game. Senior center Grace LaBree scored only one point, but pulled down 11 rebounds and blocked 5 shots to lead the effort. The Eagles shot 9-for-49 from the floor against the Broncos.
“The difference was our ability to handle their physical style of play and then match that back on defense the way we did all game long,” Winchester said.
The Eagles led 15-12 after a defense-dominated first half that saw both teams shoot 22 percent from the floor with 5 turnovers.
Allen, who finished with a team-high 15 points, led Mt. Ararat with 6 points in the half. The Eagles used a mixture of man-to-man and 1-3-1 zone defenses, with some fullcourt pressure mixed in to frustrate Hampden’s shooters.
The Broncos played tenacious man-to-man defense.
Mt. Ararat entered the contest with the top-scoring offense in the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference averaging 61.2 points per game. The Eagles also boasted the top defense in the conference, yielding 27.8 points per game.
Hampden came in with the fourth-best offense in the KVAC (50.7 ppg) and No. 2 defense (35.2 ppg).