AUGUSTA — The Nokomis girls basketball team picked the right time to exact revenge.

Led by Chelsea Crockett’s double-double — 21 points, 10 rebounds — the No. 3 Warriors beat No. 6 Camden Hills 55-41 in a Class A North quarterfinal Friday afternoon at the Augusta Civic Center.

The Warriors will meet No. 2 Skowhegan in the semifinals at 2:30 p.m., Wednesday at the Augusta Civic Center. The Indians beat No. 10 Oceanside 50-41 on Friday.

It was certainly sweet vengeance for Nokomis (15-4), which dropped a 76-53 decision to these Windjammers (11-8) in a regular-season meeting Feb. 2. Nokomis enjoyed a large lead in that game as well.

Crockett said the team was confident Friday.

“The first time we played against Camden Hills, we came out with a 26-9 run,” Crockett said. “Then we just fell apart. We knew how to play them, because we came out so well the first time, and we knew we just had to play our game and relax.”

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“We’re not a team that can go up and down the floor, we just can’t, can’t do it and we’ve never done that,” Nokomis head coach Michelle Paradis added. “We really need to slow the ball down and keep it to a slow pace. We totally collapsed on defense the last time we played them and we tried to run up and down the floor with them, and that’s not anything that we’ve done all season.”

Both teams traded leads — three in total — during the first quarter. Nokomis edged Camden Hills 14-12 during the quarter thanks to 3-pointers from Crockett and guard Olivia Moore — who knocked down four 3-pointers to finish with 14 points — even though the Warriors had some early turnover woes.

“(Crockett and Moore) have been (hitting shots) all season,” Paradis said. “It’s a big help when you can have people who can shoot the ball, and more than one person who can shoot the ball, too.”

Nokomis extended its lead in the second quarter — outscoring the Windjammers 16-7 — walking into the locker room at halftime with a comfortable 30-19 lead.

Camden Hills refused to go away quietly. Led by Charlotte Messer — who scored a team-high 14 points — the Windjammers cut Nokomis’ lead to eight at the end of the third quarter and then later pulled to within five points. But that would be the closest Camden Hills would ever get to reclaiming the lead.

Crockett and Moore knocked down a pair of 3-pointers for a 6-0 run in just a 20-second span, and the Warriors finished off the Windjammers at the line, nailing eight free throws to put the game away.

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“We knew that (Camden Hills) was a really good team, so we knew if we wanted to beat them we had to play solid defense and not exchange baskets with them,” Crockett said. “We just had to get a defensive stop, go down and score, get a defensive stop, and just keep going.”

Austin Taylor contributed with eight points, while Gabrielle Lord added five points and five rebounds for Nokomis.

Kassandra Krul and Miae DeWaard each scored seven points for Camden Hills.

Nokomis beat Skowhegan 41-34 in a regular-season meeting Jan. 12.

“We still need to work on rebounding (before Wednesday)” Paradis said. “If we don’t make the shot, we don’t have a rebounder in there.”

Dave Dyer — 621-5640

ddyer@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Dave_Dyer


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