AUGUSTA — Memo to whatever team faces Hall-Dale in the Class C girls’ basketball state championship game next Saturday: Don’t make Amanda Trepanier angry.

North Yarmouth Academy found that out the hard way in the Class C South final.

Trepanier scored 19 points, backcourt mate KK Wills added 13 and Hall-Dale rallied from an 18-point second-quarter deficit to defeat NYA 63-56 at the Augusta Civic Center.

Hayden Madore added 10 points for the top-seeded Bulldogs (21-0). Third-seeded NYA, which has never won a state championship, finished 17-3.

Sarah English scored 19 points for NYA, while Angel Huntsman added 12 when not dazzling the Civic Center crowd with her pinpoint running passes from the point, including a couple no-look dishes that resulted in points.

English (15 first-half points) and Huntsman (11) powered NYA to leads of 30-12 in the second quarter and 38-26 at the half. Then Trepanier and Wills led Hall-Dale’s comeback.

The Bulldogs went on a 12-0 run on the third quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers from Wills. Her second 3 followed a Trepanier steal and gave the Bulldogs their first lead, 46-45, with 36 seconds left in the quarter.

“I play better when I’m angry,”  said Trepanier, who was named tournament MVP. “I play better defense when I’m angry, but I wasn’t angry when I was trying to get the team worked up. I knew that we could come back.”

Wills, trying to balance the title plaque, the victory net and her championship medal as she spoke, agreed.

“That (steal) was really the turning point, when everyone said, ‘Yep, we’ve got this in the bag.'” Wills said. “(The coaches) decided, ‘If you get open looks, shoot that ball.’ I saw the open looks, and I let ’em rip.”

NYA knotted the game at 46 on a Huntsman free throw – her only point of the second half – but Trepanier drained a 3-pointer in the first minute of the fourth to give Hall-Dale the lead for good.

Hall-Dale had several lopsided victories this season – 81-7, 71-15 and 67-18, just to name a few – and didn’t face many deficits. But Coach O.J. Jaramillo had no doubt his team would pull through despite its shaky start.

“I’ve coached and guided these kids from third grade on up; AAU tournaments, middle school tournaments,” Jaramillo said. “We’ve been through that sort of thing, but not at this level. And one thing I know about these kids that a lot of people don’t really see is that they will never quit. Our shooters are going to shoot, the shots are going to fall.

“In the first half, we weren’t really looking for our shots; it really took us out of our rhythm. Once we started looking for our shots and our shooters gained confidence, good things happened.”

Trepanier’s offensive ability has never been in question. But the crucial third-quarter steal was the product of many long practices, Jaramillo said.

“She’s been an offensive-minded kid forever, and kudos to her,” he said. “This year, we’ve been working on defense and she’s really been busting her tail, and the fact that she came up with one of the key steals that put us in a position to go ahead was huge.”

Charlotte Harper-Cunningham scored 12 points for NYA, 10 in the fourth quarter.

The Panthers suffered their first loss against a Class C team this season; their only regular-season losses were to Class A Brunswick and Class B Wells. NYA has only one senior on its roster.

“They (Hall-Dale) definitely increased their team speed, put the pressure on a little bit, so we didn’t get as many transition baskets,” NYA Coach Tom Robinson said. “They definitely stepped up the intensity.

“I told the girls, ‘Remember how this one feels. It hurts, it should hurt. Get better in the offseason and hopefully we’ll be back here next year.’ Nothing’s guaranteed, but I like our chances.”

Hall-Dale last won a state title in 2011, and Wills was in the stands to see her sister participate in the celebration. Eleven years later, she has a chance to add her own name to the Bulldogs’ record book.

“Now it’s our turn,” she said.

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