AUGUSTA — At the end of the day, basketball is about making baskets. And Hampden Academy made plenty of them Friday night.

The two-time defending regional champion Broncos shot the lights out of the Augusta Civic Center and rolled over No. 8 Nokomis 66-29 in the final of four Class A North girls basketball quarterfinals. Hampden (18-1) will face No. 4 Lawrence in Wednesday’s regional semifinals.

Sydney Hodgdon led the Broncos with 12 points, one of four Hampden players to finish in double figures.

“Tonight was crazy for us,” said Hodgdon, a senior guard. “We always try to get it in the post and bring it back out, and that’s really when we shoot well. We always try to come out really strong, and tonight was definitely that moment.”

The Broncos have not lost to a Class A North opponent since losing at Skowhegan in January 2019.

Megan Deans, Amelia McLaughlin and Emma Haskell each added 10 points for Hampden. Deans also collected 11 rebounds.

Hampden led 43-8 at halftime, having connected on 17 of 26 attempts from the floor in the opening half (65.4 percent). That number was raised significantly in the second quarter, when the Broncos made 11 of 15 shot attempts.

“We just wanted to come out and play fast,” Hampden coach Nick Winchester said. “I thought right out of the gate we came out and played fast. We’ve played a lot of games on this floor, and I don’t know that the shooting background is as much of a problem for (us).

“We played good in all phases of the game, but it starts for us defensively. When you can go into halftime and you’ve only given up eight points, you’re going to give yourself a chance to win basketball games. Offense for us is a by-product of how well we can play defense.”

In all, Hampden scored 27 points in the second quarter and connected on 26 field goal attempts. Even after going deep into the bench, the Broncos finished with a 47.3 percent efficiency from the field.

Nokomis (7-12) was led by a stellar 24-point night from freshman Camryn King, who poured in all but five of her team’s points.

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