A North girls basketball: Nokomis shuts down Camden Hills in quarterfinals

Nokomis sophomore forward Alaina Donahue drives to the basket against Camden Hills during a Class A North girls basketball quarterfinal Friday at the Augusta Civic Center. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — Nokomis’s Camryn King will give you an aw-shucks smile-and-shrug when you ask about her effort in the Warriors’ 41-26 win over Camden Hills in the Class A North girls basketball quarterfinals Friday night at the Augusta Civic Center. But her game was hardly worth ignoring.

The 5-foot-7 King had 15 points and three steals as the Warriors held the Windjammers to only eight points in the second half after trailing 18-17 at halftime. In the fourth quarter, King scored six points to help put the game away.

“I just try to work hard, and whatever works, works,” she said with a laugh.

Fifth-seeded Nokomis (11-8) faces the winners of Friday’s late game between No. 1 Gardiner and No. 8 Brewer in the semifinals Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. back in Augusta.

Brianna Townsend added 12 points for the Warriors, including a 5-for-6 effort from the free throw line down the stretch. Overall, she was 7-for-9 from the line.

Fourth-seeded Camden Hills (10-9) won the teams’ regular-season meeting, 51-41 on Jan. 13, which caused Nokomis coach Chelsea Crockett to make some changes.

“In this game, we played them man-to-man and tried to put the pressure on them,” Crockett said. “The last time we played zone against them, they hit a lot of shots.”

King added the Warriors missed several players to illness in the first game, necessitating the defensive switch.

Offense was at a premium throughout. Both teams endured extensive scoring droughts in the first half; Nokomis went 8:29 without a bucket before the Warriors scored six straight points early in the second. Camden Hills, meanwhile, went 7:06 without a basket until Leah Snyder scored a pair of quick buckets; she had six of the Jammers’ seven points in the frame.

A putback by Camden Hills’s Leah Jones with 4:14 left in the third quarter tied the game at 2o, but it was all Nokomis from there. The Warriors went on a 10-2 run, with five different players entering the scoresheet.

“We had a bad first start, and in the second half we came out hot,” King said. “Putting a lot of pressure and running the floor a lot helped us generate more offense.”

In the fourth, Nokomis played keep-away and rotated the ball around the perimeter. Camden Hills went 7:43 without a basket in the period until Kirsten Jones found the net with 3 seconds left.

Snyder led the Windjammers with seven points, while freshman teammate Leah Jones had 10 rebounds and five steals.

“I just think we turned the ball over a little too much in the third quarter and gave them good opportunities at the rim, and then the shots we did get weren’t going down,” Camden Hills coach Samantha Bragg said.