Valley senior Madeline Hill swings the net after her team defeated St. Dom's 74-47 in the Class D South girls basketball final Saturday at the Augusta Civic Center. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

AUGUSTA — The Valley girls basketball team faced not one, but two unknown opponents Saturday — St. Dominic Academy and adversity. But the Cavaliers relied on their depth and versatility to dispatch both foes.

Liana Hartwell had 18 points and 10 rebounds as top-seeded Valley captured its second straight Class D South title with a 74-47 win over No. 3 St. Dom’s at the Augusta Civic Center.

The Cavaliers (21-0) will face North champion Central Aroostook in the state final next Saturday at Bangor’s Cross Insurance Center.

Rylee Clark added 16 points and 10 rebounds for Valley, which improved to 42-1 over the last two seasons. Madeline Hill, the team’s lone senior, scored 11 points, while her younger sister Delia, a freshman, chipped in with 10 off the bench.

Valley, which had outscored its opponents 73.6-26.3 going into Saturday and whose closest win was 70-51 over Class C Carrabec on Jan. 21, didn’t face St. Dom’s in the regular season, which added a bit of mystery to the proceedings. 

The Saints — who dressed just seven players but sport a dynamic 1-2 punch in senior Charli Apodaca and eighth-grader Kara “JuJu” Farrington — trailed just 18-14 after one quarter and 26-19 at halftime.

But Valley took over from there, going on a 9-0 run midway through the third quarter en route to a 55-28 lead by the end of the quarter. Hartwell, a freshman who played regularly as an eighth-grader last season, had eight points, three rebounds, two steals and a block during the quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers.

“We went out and we just pushed and pushed and took the open shots, loaded up on defense and pushed in transition,” said Hartwell, who had 18 points and 14 steals in Thursday’s 80-17 semifinal win over Pine Tree Academy and was named the tournament’s most outstanding player. “It was just really good and really fun that we had that amazing third quarter.”

Apodaca had 14 points and 10 rebounds for St. Dom’s (15-6), while Farrington added 13 points and Piper Croteau 11, including a basket off her own rebound that gave the Saints a 12-11 lead with two minutes left in the first quarter. A 3-pointer by Madeline Hill gave Valley the lead for good at 14-12, but St. Dom’s hung around until halftime.

“It was good to have that competitiveness that we did, especially in the first half,” said Hartwell, who placed St. Dom’s right up with Carrabec among the toughest opponents Valley has faced all season. 

St. Dom’s cut the deficit to 28-22 early in the third on a Farrington 3-pointer, but Valley scored the next nine points on two baskets from Clark, a 3-pointer from Madeline Hill and a bucket from Daisy Wright after a nice bounce pass from Hill. 

A pair of 3-pointers from Liana Hartwell later in the quarter helped Valley pull away.

While Valley couldn’t rely on the steal-and-layup formula that worked so well in Thursday’s semifinal, defense still played a significant role, as the Cavaliers held a 30-17 advantage in rebounds — 10-3 in the third quarter.

“They (St. Dom’s) were a little more physical than I thought, but I knew we could get them inside on the rebounding, because we were a lot bigger, obviously,” said Valley coach Gordon Hartwell, the grandfather of Liana Hartwell and the Hill sisters. Three Valley starters were 5-foot-10 and another 5-9, while St. Dom’s had one starter at 5-10 and no one else taller than 5-7. “I told them that against good teams, it takes time for talent to separate.”

All that’s left for Valley is a little unfinished business on what Madeline Hill termed the “revenge tour” during the preseason. While the Valley boys have seven state titles to their credit, the girls are still in search of their first Gold Ball. That “1” in Valley’s 42-1 record the last two years? Last February’s loss to Southern Aroostook in the Class D final in Augusta.

Hill and her teammates hope to end that drought next Saturday.

“We really just need to stay focused and not let anything get in our way,” she said. 

Added Liana Hartwell: “Losing last year was not fun, and we made that promise to come back and hopefully finish the job this year.”