Hall-Dale poses for photos while celebrating after beating Madison, 36-35, in the Class C South girls basketball final on Saturday in Augusta. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

AUGUSTA — For the third time in the last four years, the Hall-Dale girls basketball team is headed to the Class C state final.

Thanks to a 14-point third quarter, No. 1 Hall-Dale beat No. 3 Madison 36-25 for the South championship Saturday night at the Augusta Civic Center. It’s the second straight regional crown for Hall-Dale (18-3), which will meet North champion Penobscot Valley in the state final at 7:05 p.m. next Saturday at Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.

“It feels amazing, that was a hard-fought game,” Hall-Dale coach Laurie Rowe said. “We got down (in the regular season) against Madison, but we came back and played some really good basketball in that one. This one was a lot tougher. But the girls really dug in and didn’t want to lose. They gave it their all.”

Senior guard Torie Tibbetts led Hall-Dale with 11 points and nine rebounds, while junior guard Sierra Gibbons added 10 points and seven rebounds.

“(Winning the C South title) feels amazing,” Tibbetts said. “We’ve done it before, but it always feels amazing.”

Madison, led by senior guard Raegan Cowan’s 11 points, finished 15-6.

Both teams dragged through a turnover-laden first half. Hall-Dale led 9-7 after the first quarter and outscored Madison 7-2 in the second quarter to go into halftime with a 16-9 lead.

“(The message at halftime) was, ‘You need to settle down,'” Rowe said. “‘You need to believe in yourselves, we believe in you, and you need to settle down.’ They were having lots of turnovers; they weren’t moving the ball well. We just had to talk to them about settling down.”

“We get in the locker room (at halftime), and Laurie’s like, ‘You guys have two minutes to spit at each other and talk about what’s going on,'” added Tibbetts. “We were just like, ‘OK, that (half) was bad, what can we do to change it?’ We talked to each other, we know why we’re frustrated, and we help each other through those frustrations. We just worked together a lot and pushed through those.”

Hall-Dale picked up the pace offensively in the third quarter, thanks to Gibbons, who scored five of her 10 points. Tibbetts and senior forward Jade Graham each added four points. Entering the fourth quarter, Hall-Dale led 30-16.

Madison refused to quit, going on a 9-0 run. The Bulldogs forced 25 turnovers and fought hard with Hall-Dale on the boards throughout the game, as senior forward Liz Kelley grabbed six rebounds, while senior guard Mackenzie Robbins had five rebounds.

“Seeing the ball go in would have been nice,” Madison coach Adam Rich said. “We started on that nice run (in the fourth quarter), hit a couple buckets. We got good looks, and nothing was falling for us. Defensively, I couldn’t ask for anything better. The rebounding, all that, it was fantastic.

“With (the team) being so top heavy with seniors, the competitive drive (stood out this year). They never gave up, that was the biggest thing I noticed the most. They just never quit. There was always a fight in them, even when it looked like the game was out of hand, they just fought back and kept fighting. That’s kind of been the theme of our whole team.”

The game was a rematch of last year’s regional final, which Hall-Dale won 49-36. Hall-Dale beat Madison 68-47 in a regular-season matchup on Jan. 29 in Madison.

Hall-Dale last won the state title in 2022, beating Stearns, 57-42. The Bulldogs fell to Dexter last season, 48-41.

“It’s really important to me that those younger girls, who may not see it later in their career, that they get to experience this in their career,” Tibbetts said. “I’ve got to experience this in my career, and I want them to experience that.”

Graham and senior guard Marie Benoit each scored six points for Hall-Dale.