AUGUSTA — The quarterfinal round of the Class A North girls basketball tournament on Friday was a day for favorites, as the higher seeds in the first three games advanced to the semifinals.

There was still plenty to learn from the day, and to look forward to in the coming week. Here are four takeaways from the quarterfinals.

Hampden Academy tempers expectations

It’s no secret that Hampden Academy, the defending Class A North champion, enters this year’s tournament as one of the favorites.

But it would be easy to think the Broncos had been knocked out of the playoffs after talking to coach Nick Winchester following a 35-18 win over Lewiston.

“What I said to the girls was, ‘Today was a survive-and-advance situation. Check that, we survived,'” Winchester said. “As a coach, one thing I’m disappointed with is the number of turnovers we had in the game. We had 18, and a lot of those were unforced.”

Hampden Academy reached the Class A final last season, losing to Mt. Ararat, which moved to Class A North this season. The Eagles are the No. 1 seed in the region, while the Broncos are No. 2.

The Broncos (15-4) graduated just one senior from last year’s team and are driven to change their fortunes. They realize there is plenty of work to do before thinking about a Gold Ball.

“We had a taste of how it felt last year and we’re hungry for more,” said Hampden Academy junior guard Aubrey Shaw. “But we don’t want that to get to our heads. We know it’s not a guarantee that we’re going to get back. We’re going to work 10 times harder and prove to everyone that we can get back there again.”

Added Winchester: “I think the biggest difference between last year and this year is, last year, we didn’t have any expectations. Nobody really saw that coming and no one really had an expectation. This year, right from the get-go, we were playing with expectations.

“How you handle (those expectations), sometimes, is the challenge. I said before we took the floor, we have to stay in the moment. We can’t worry about what if we lose, or what if we win. We can only worry about the now. It’s easy to say, but it’s not easy to do.”

Hampden Academy will meet No. 3 Camden Hills in the semifinals.

Christmas tournament helped prepare Edward Little for Civic Center

Edward Little was in Augusta after playing tournament games in Portland for several years as part of the Class AA North tournament.

The No. 4 Red Eddies handled the change in venue well, beating No. 5 Bangor, 45-36. Edward Little coach Frank Perry said the team felt relaxed in Augusta after playing Christmas tournament games there.

“I was pretty pumped (for the game), because we shot the ball well here (during the Christmas tournament),” Perry said. “We didn’t make as many 3s (on Friday), we haven’t been hitting as many of our 3s as we had earlier in the season. But that’s coming, though.”

Juniors Hope Fontaine and Alexis Creaser and sophomore Elizabeth Galway each scored 12 points for Edward Little.

Camden Hills rides its defense

Camden Hills (16-3) started its tournament run by forcing 31 turnovers in a 59-31 win over Brunswick (7-12), including 21 in the first half.

“Forcing people to turn the ball over is huge (for us),” said Camden Hills coach Samantha Bragg. “Hopefully, we can clean up our fouls a little bit moving forward, but we know fouls come with defensive pressures. We kind of have to take some to give some.”

The Windjammers boasted one of the best defenses in Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A this season. Defense was also a key piece to their run to the Class A North final last year.

“We understand (the Augusta Civic Center) is a bigger floor, so (defensive) rotations are going to be a little bit longer,” said Windjammers senior guard Leah Jones. “We’re going to need that little extra sprint (in transition) to really make sure we get there.”

Brunswick’s young roster shows potential in quarterfinal loss

The season may have ended for the Dragons on Friday night, but the play of three freshmen offered a glimpse of the program’s future.

Grace Roak, Emma Michaud and Sadie Mullen were all in the starting lineup. Roak led the trio with 15 points and added four rebounds, while Michaud and Mullen each scored five points. All three saw significant minutes.

Roak averaged 14.1 points and 8.5 rebounds per game this season.

“Grace is a basketball player,” said Brunswick coach Sam Farrell. “It sounds simple to say, but she’s got great feet, great hands. She’s smart; she’s almost too unselfish out there. She wants to win, she might be the most competitive person on the team, which is great for a freshman.

“When you can tell the team to give a freshman the ball, and none of them make faces at you, you can tell you have a pretty good freshman.”