AUGUSTA — It’s the defending Class C South champs and the No. 1 seed for a reason. On Thursday, the Hall-Dale girls basketball team showed why.
From clean passing, consistent shot-making and relentless defense, Hall-Dale put on a remarkable showing in a 69-36 semifinal win over No. 4 Winthrop. The win sends the Bulldogs to the regional final Saturday against Madison, which defeated Dirigo earlier.
“That was for sure (the complete team performance),” said Hall-Dale senior Marie Benoit. “We really focused on trying to get stops, and we were able to play team basketball together.”
How Hall-Dale did it
• The Bulldogs (17-3) established a quick lead as two early 3-pointers from Lucy Gray powered them to a 12-0 advantage. They would carry a 25-4 lead into the second quarter and led by as many as 39 points in the second half.
• Hall-Dale was anything but wasteful offensively, turning the ball over just six times. It made the most of its clean passes with Jade Graham and Sierra Gibbons finishing inside.
• Relentless defense. Hall-Dale’s size inside made it difficult for Winthrop (15-5) to get to the basket, and it was excellent at contesting shots that were available for a Rambler team that shot just 10 of 43 from the field.
“(We played with) a lot of freakin’ effort on defense,” said Hall-Dale coach Laurie Rowe. “We really locked in on their best players. They have some good players, and we were determined not to let them get the ball, and it showed.”
What it means
• The win avenged one of Hall-Dale’s few losses this season, a 51-47 defeat to Winthrop on the same Civic Center floor on Dec. 28, and sets up a regional title game rematch with Madison.
• The Bulldogs continued to excel with Graham back in the lineup. The standout forward missed a month of the season with a knee injury, and with her fully healthy, Hall-Dale is playing its best basketball at the right time.
• Hall-Dale’s decisive win followed a much more challenging one over Poland in the regional quarterfinals. That game served to energize the Bulldogs, something their coach felt throughout its scintillating performance Thursday.
“The girls were excited to play that hard of a game in the first round, and I think the confidence from that game carried over to this one,” Rowe said. “We really locked in yesterday at practice to work on some of the things we needed to work on, and today, we executed them.”
They said it
“It’s so great (to have Jade back and fully healthy). We’ve been playing together since we were really young, so our chemistry together is really good. She’s so important (to the team).” — Marie Benoit
“When you play a team that big and physical, and you don’t get shots to go your way, and calls don’t go your way, it’s tough to beat them. Offensively, they did a really good job. Defensively, I thought we were very tentative and didn’t really create the intensity and pressure that we wanted to.” — Winthrop coach John Baehr
Stat leaders
• Winthrop: Kylie Mansir (nine points), Madeline Wagner (eight points, seven rebounds)
• Hall-Dale: Jade Graham (17 points), Marie Benoit (16 points), Sierra Gibbons (12 points, 10 rebounds)
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