Camden Hills’ Madison Cronkite goes for a layup as Gardiner’s Molly Takatsu attempts to block her during a Class A North girls basketball quarterfinal game Friday at the Augusta Civic Center. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

AUGUSTA — Pardon the bad pun, but the Camden Hills girls basketball team came out smelling like a Rose on Friday night.

Rose Tohanczyn scored a season-high 30 points and added six steals as the fourth-seeded Windjammers handled No. 5 Gardiner, 63-45, in the Class A North quarterfinals at the Augusta Civic Center. Tohanczyn put the game away in the third quarter when she scored eight straight points, including consecutive baskets off her own steals.

“We’re trying to stay up with the ball a lot, and I think we did that as a team,” said Tohanczyn, a soft-spoken 5-foot-11 senior who prefers to let her play do her talking. “They (the shots) were falling for me, and it worked out that way.”

Added Camden Hills coach Samantha Bragg: “Rose has been there all year. We’ve been waiting for a game like where some of those ones that don’t fall, fall, and they worked for her tonight.”

On the other side of the ball, Tohanczyn, Thea Laukka and Leah Jones, among others, made a mess of Gardiner’s passing lanes and afforded the Tigers few quality shots. Laukka, a 5-8 guard, was in tune with Tohanczyn all night in setting up her baskets.

“We know that if we force turnovers and get easy things in transition, we know that’s where we thrive,” Bragg said. “We like to get out and run, and we did tonight on a bigger floor.”

How Camden Hills won

• Camden Hills (13-6) used the scoring of Tohanczyn and a shut-down defense that forced turnovers and kept Gardiner (9-10) from getting open shots. The Windjammers held Lydia Gero, one of Gardiner’s top threats, to eight points.

• The Windjammers scored the game’s first six points, led 13-2 midway through the first quarter and 31-16 at halftime. Camden Hills scored the first 12 points of the third quarter to push its lead to 43-16. Tohanczyn had 16 points at the break and 28 after three.

• Camden Hills held a 16-7 advantage in steals.

They said it

• “We talked a lot this week about how it’s now or never. Being more aggressive, getting in some passing lanes, forcing the issue defensively so that we can score easy buckets and not work so hard on the offensive end, and I think they did that perfectly all night long.” — Samantha Bragg

• “We’ve worked really hard on defense this year and tonight it all really came together.” — Rose Tohanczyn

Sweep success

• Camden Hills improved to 2-0 against Gardiner this season; the Windjammers won their lone regular-season meeting, 52-47, on Jan. 7.

Statistical leaders

• Camden Hills: Rose Tohanczyn (30 points, six steals); Thea Laukka (13 points, six rebounds).

• Gardiner: Emilee Brown (13 points), Molly Takatsu (10 rebounds).

Up next

• Camden Hills faces the winner of Friday’s late quarterfinal between No. 1 Lawrence and No. 8 Nokomis at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday back at the Civic Center.