AUGUSTA — It took top-seeded Richmond a half to get untracked against Seacoast Christian in Thursday’s Western Maine Class D girls basketball semifinal round.

But once the Bobcats got rolling, they just had too much for the fourth-seeded Guardians. Too much depth, too much defense, too much height and too much Jamie Plummer.

Plummer finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Bobcats to a 52-28 victory that put them in the regional final for the second year in a row. Richmond (18-1) will face No. 2 Rangeley at 1:05 p.m. Saturday at the Augusta Civic Center.

The Bobcats beat the Guardians twice during the regular season, but like Thursday’s game, those victories came harder than the score made them appear.

“At halftime today we were like, ‘What’s our problem?’ ” Plummer said. “Then we’re like, ‘This happened the first two times. We’re going to come out, fire it up and be ready to go in the second half.’ “

The Bobcats had problems solving Seacoast’s 1-2-2 zone defense in the first half and were never able to pull away despite forcing 18 turnovers. Ciarra Lancaster came off the bench late in the half to spell Plummer and contributed a free throw and a baseline jumper at the buzzer to give Richmond a 21-13 lead at the break.

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The Bobcats settled the outcome early in the second half by scoring the first 11 points to take a 32-13 lead. Alyssa Pearson — who finished with eight points and nine rebounds — converted a couple of rebounds, Plummer converted a three-point play off an assist from Danica Hurley and Bri Snedeker drilled a 3-pointer.

“At first I started to play outside a little bit to see if that was going to open the middle,” Plummer said. “I needed to be underneath and rebound so me and Alyssa just tried to set some screens for each other and work it in.”

The Bobcats worked an effective 1-3-1 halfcourt trap that caused the Guardians problems all day and, in the end, caused most of their 35 turnovers.

Nor could they contend with the 6-foot Plummer, 5-11 Pearson and 5-10 Lancaster. Three starters fouled out, including senior Ruth Towne, who scored 26 points in the quarterfinals Tuesday. Towne’s five-point flurry spanning the third and fourth quarters drew the Guardians to within 40-28, but she fouled out trying to contain Plummer on an offensive rebound with 5 minutes, 44 seconds left.

Towne finished with 16 points and six rebounds and provided just about all of Seacoast’s offense. Snedeker finished with nine points for the Bobcats while Lancaster scored seven and Hurley six to go with four assists.

Gary Hawkins — 621-5638

ghawkins@centralmaine.com


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