AUGUSTA — If ever there was a statement game, the Lawrence girls basketball team went looking for it Thursday night.

Led by a balanced offense and a determined defense, the Bulldogs responded from a home loss to undefeated Gardiner on Tuesday with a 55-37 Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference win over Cony on Thursday that wasn’t as close as the final score would have indicated.

The Bulldogs (15-3), who wrapped up the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Class A North regional tournament, led by 20 midway through the third quarter and 25 midway through the fourth.

“This was really important,” said senior Ali Higgins, who finished with seven points. “I couldn’t wait to get back on the court after (Gardiner) and prove that we really are the second seed. We think we’re No. 1 — but we’re at least No. 2 tonight.”

Lawrence coach Greg Chesley, whose team rode a 12-game winning streak into Tuesday’s defeat against the Tigers, said there was some motivation for the Bulldogs to prove they were still to be considered among the short list of favorites in the postseason.

“We did talk about it a little bit before the game,” Chesley said. “Cony’s only lost to us and Gardiner, and we wanted to make sure we kept it that way. We wanted to make sure they didn’t have a notch in their belt being able to say they’d beaten Lawrence going into the playoffs.

“We wanted to make sure that going into the playoffs we could say, ‘Hey, we might have lost to Gardiner, but we’re still pretty good.’”

Lawrence got things rolling early and rarely paused to take a breath.

A 12-4 lead after one quarter ballooned into a 30-17 advantage by halftime. Maddie Provost hit a pair of three-point buckets in the second period for Lawrence, and she added another in the third quarter that saw the visitors’ lead grow to 46-24 with eight minutes remaining.

“We knew this was a big game, and we just went out and played,” said Provost, who finished with 13. “I think we got the ball in the middle really well and kicked it back out. We drove and kicked it out and hit open shots, and that’s what really worked for us.”

Bri Poulin had 12 points to pace Lawrence in the victory, with Hope Bouchard adding nine more.

The Bulldogs’ night — as well as the Rams’, for that matter — was illustrated perfectly on a play with 5:33 remaining.

Lizzie Dumont’s pass under and around a pair of Cony defenders under the offensive hoop found Lilly Gray for a wide open layup. Gray may have missed, but she collected her own rebound for the putback — and then was fouled to make for the old-fashioned three-point play.

“We didn’t play good defense at all, that was the key thing,” said Cony coach John Dennett. “Lawrence is really good. For me, they’re the deepest team in the conference.”

Cony (14-4), which will be the No. 3 seed in the regional tourney, had won 13 of its previous 14 heading into Thursday on the strength of its defense and its ability to hit outside shots.

Morgan Cunningham and Sage Fortin had connected for more than 50 3-pointers between them on the season. Combined against Lawrence, the entire Cony roster hit just once from beyond the arc until adding a second by the time the game was long since settled late in the final period.

“We didn’t shoot very well at all,” Dennett said. “We’re a live-and-die by the three team. Tonight, we made two. And one was with less than two minutes to go, and it was from 10 feet beyond the three-point line.”

Chesley said the Bulldogs learned something from the Gardiner loss as it related to defending the perimeter.

“We took away their threes,” Chesley said. “We had to close out and we had better size, so we had help behind with a rim protector. We could play a little Gardiner ball.”

Cunningham finished with 12 for Cony, while Abby Morrill added 10.

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