Girls basketball: After a year of ultimate tests, Cony hopes to pass one more exam

Cony players celebrate their win over Lawrence in the Class A North final Friday at the Augusta Civic Center. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — There’s no easy path, no shortcuts, to a state championship game. For this Cony girls basketball team, though, the road here has been particularly grueling.

The Rams have had to face an extremely difficult schedule on the road to their first Class A state final appearance since 2012. They’ve had to do it with a six-player rotation, one that’s left little margin for error.

“It’s been tough, for sure,” said Cony junior Abby Morrill. “We’ve had a lot of tests this year. We’ve really had to fight our way through it.”

The Rams have fought their way all the way through to a state title game date with Brunswick at 1:05 p.m. on Saturday at Portland’s Cross Insurance Arena. Now, they hope to do it one more time to add an eighth Gold Ball to the team’s trophy case.

You won’t find much activity off of the Cony bench, regardless of the game situation. Whereas other teams can go nine or 10 deep, the Rams lack that luxury, starting Morrill, Cale Barajas, Morgan Cunningham, Morgan Fichthorn and Maci Freeman, with only Cassie Lacroix earning significant time off the bench.

“We push through it a lot because that’s what we have to do,” said Cunningham, Cony’s leading scorer this season at 16.0 points per game. “We know we don’t really have subs and that we have to give it our all. It’s hard, but we’ve managed to get through it.”

It works, though, because everyone Cony (14-7) puts on the floor can play. Cunningham and Lacroix are strong 3-point shooters; Morrill (9.1 rebounds per game) and Fichthorn (8.8) control the boards; Freeman leads Class A North in assists at 4.6 per game; Barajas is a solid on-ball defender.

The Rams execute those strengths at key moments. After a rough start in the quarterfinals against Brewer, Cony buried seven 3s in the second half; in the semifinals and regional final against Hampden Academy and Lawrence, respectively, they locked down on defense late to advance.

“There’s not a lot of (margin for error) — it can get stressful with things like injuries and foul trouble — but we make it work,” said Cony head coach John Dennett. “We’re really fortunate that we’ve been able to stay healthy, and with that working out for us, we’ve played some good basketball.”

Cony girls basketball head coach John Dennett talks with players during a fourth quarter timeout against Brewer in a Class A North girls basketball quarterfinal game Friday at the Augusta Civic Center. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

It’s come against a gauntlet of a schedule. In addition to their Class A North foes, Cony has also played games against Oceanside (21-0), Mt. Ararat (18-3), Spruce Mountain (18-3) and Oxford Hills (15-6) — all teams that appeared in regional championship games in their respective classes.

The Rams’ seven losses, then, don’t tell the full story. They were agonizingly close in losses to Mt. Ararat and Lawrence in late December, losing by a combined four points. Their Jan. 25 loss to Oxford Hills, which was in the midst of a 13-game winning streak in Class AA, came by a single point.

“It’s definitely something that’s helped,” Morrill said of the challenging schedule. “It was hard playing against those teams and having a much tougher schedule compared to all the other teams, but I think that also has us prepared for Saturday. … I think we definitely are (a better team than our record shows).”

Although Cony has a history of greatness with seven state titles and now 13 regional crowns to its name, the program has also gone through some historic lows fairly recently. The Rams were 15-93 over six seasons from 2014-20, finishing last in Class A North three times during that span.

What changed? Well, the current crop of players arrived at Cony High School. With Barajas, Cunningham and Freeman as freshmen in 2020-21, the Rams went 5-5 in the shortened COVID-19 season. They went 11-8 in 2021-22 and 15-5 last year before this year’s run to the state championship game.

“I think this group of girls deserves some credit for kind of turning that around,” Dennett said. “They went to (former head coach) Paul Vachon’s basketball camp when they were little girls and learned from the Cassie Coopers and the Kristi Violettes, and they dreamed about being Cony girls basketball players.”

That dream turned to material reward last Friday as Cony defeated reigning state champion Lawrence to win its first regional championship in 12 years. That result avenged the Rams’ season-ending loss to the Bulldogs in last year’s semifinals as well as two regular season defeats this season.

Now, this Cony team has a chance to earn a special place in the program’s gilded history. A win over Brunswick would give the Rams their first state championship since 2007, before some of their youngest players were even born and before their seniors were old enough to walk.

“It would be pretty special to get it done,” Freeman said. “It’s definitely bittersweet for us seniors, but it’s also a chance to finish it out strong and win one last game together. We’re going to leave it all out there on the court and have no regrets.”