AUGUSTA — It wasn’t fancy, and it didn’t need to be.

Top-seeded Lawrence raced out to an 18-point first quarter lead and then did enough to hold No. 4 Camden Hills at bay in a 60-45 Class A North regional semifinal girls basketball win Wednesday at the Augusta Civic Center.

Junior Lily Gray lead all scorers with 20 points as part of a double-double effort that included 12 rebounds, with eight of those coming at the offensive end.

“We’ve put in all the hard work, and it’s good for us to win and see that the hard work is paying off,” Gray said. “I just focus when I get offensive touches that I’m squaring my shoulders and going up strong. On the defensive end, I’m just making sure that I’m boxing out and going up strong for rebounds.”

The Bulldogs (19-1), the reigning Class A state champion, will meet No. 3 Cony in Friday’s A North championship. It wasn’t pretty against the Windjammers (13-7), but it was enough.

“You’ve got to take that survive and advance attitude. We survived and we’re advancing and we’re where we want to be on Friday night,” Lawrence coach Greg Chesley said. “It could have been a little easier — taking care of the ball and doing some smart things at the end, things we’re usually pretty good at, which is kind of a little concerning. We made some key mistakes and missed some key layups.

“But we did all that and we still won, so we’re OK.”

Four different Bulldogs ended in double figures. Maddie Provost scored 13 points for Lawrence, including three three-pointers, while Nadia Morrison and Kaylee Elkins added 10 points apiece.

“Our coach always brings us back together and reminds us that we’ve got to keep going and we’re not done yet,” Gray said of playing to a big lead.

Lawrence shot less than 40 percent from the floor (25 of 65) and committed 17 turnovers — 12 of those in the second half. The Windjammers, however, committed far more (24) and shot the ball even worse (33.3 percent) after missing 15 of 20 first-half attempts from the floor.

After trailing by 16 at the half, Camden clawed to stay in contention. Thea Laukka’s hoop with 4:47 to play cut the Bulldog lead to 53-41 and ignited thoughts of an improbable comeback — but the Windjammers went without a field goal for the remainder of the fourth quarter and netted only four free throws the rest of the way.

The most remarkable part of the Lawrence victory was the near flawless start.

The Bulldogs opened the contest with a 14-0 run over the first 4:17 and scored 17 of the game’s first 18 points. They raced out to a 21-3 lead with 33.7 seconds remaining in the opening period.

They simply couldn’t sustain that pace.

“The first quarter was pretty good,” Chesley said. “That helps because we have a habit of starting slow. Today, we started fast and were able to hold on. When we get out and run … good things happen for us. We’re pretty athletic and pretty good-sized, and we did that in the first quarter.”

Kirsten Jones and Leah Jones each scored nine points to lead Camden, with Leah Jones scoring all but two of hers in the second half. Laukka ended her night with eight points.

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