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AUGUSTA — Midway through the fourth quarter of the Class A North girls basketball final against Mt. Ararat, Hampden Academy’s Naia Studley fell to the court. The freshman guard was in obvious pain as teammate Katelyn Adams carried her to the bench.

A few minutes later, Studley was back on the court with a freshly taped right ankle in her Cooper Flagg New Balance signature sneaker, sinking a pair of free throws to help send second-seeded Hampden Academy to its second straight state championship game.

The freshman may have been shaking from nerves in the first quarter, but Studley was as cool as could be as she clinched a 33-26 win over top-seeded Mt. Ararat, the defending state champion.

“I was going for a rebound, and I landed, and it just popped,” Studley said, referring to her right ankle. “I knew I wasn’t gonna leave this without a win. I just had to keep fighting.”

Studley and junior Aubrey Shaw each scored 10 points, and Hampden (17-4) avenged last year’s 43-31 loss in the state final. Shaw, who also grabbed eight rebounds, was named the region’s most outstanding player.

“This is such an amazing experience, like once in a lifetime, and I’m so grateful to be able to experience this,” Shaw said. “It’s such an amazing feeling, especially coming back to this game twice, beating a team that we lost to in states last year, just makes it that much sweeter.”

Hampden advances to the state championship game next Saturday at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland against Cheverus or South Portland.

Senior forward Julianna Allen was a major part of Mt. Ararat’s state championship run in 2025 and in the Eagles’ 17-point regular-season victory over the Broncos, but Hampden senior Grace LaBree (one point, 11 rebounds, two blocks) was able to hold the Miss Maine Basketball semifinalist to 15 points on 23 shots.

Last year, as a team of mostly underclassmen, Hampden couldn’t hang around with Mt. Ararat’s physicality, said coach Nick Winchester. It was a different story this year.

“Last year, I thought we were one year ahead of schedule, and this year is the year I thought things would start to click and roll forward,” Winchester said. “That junior class we have is obviously very, very good, and look, Grace LaBree didn’t score much tonight, but she owned the painted area. She just owned the painted area. She was a presence all night long. She was good on the glass. She really gave Julianna Allen a tough time, contested every shot.”

Mt. Ararat (19-2) led 8-7 after the first quarter and 15-12 at halftime.

Hampden took its first lead, 20-18, with 3:14 left in the third quarter when junior guard Eve Wiles (eight points) found Studley on an inbounds play for a left-corner 3-pointer.

Mt. Ararat, normally a good 3-point shooting team (18 3-pointers across the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds), made only three 3-pointers in Friday’s showdown. None were in the second half.

Allen cut Hampden’s lead to 29-25 with 3:05 left, but Wiles and Studley both sank two free throws to help secure the win.

“They played great defense,” Mt. Ararat coach Julie Petrie said. “We just couldn’t get going offensively. I thought our defense was strong. We just, I don’t know, we didn’t feel like nothing really went our way today, which is unfortunate. That’s sports, right? You have days where you can throw the ball and everything goes in, and you have days where you can’t hit anything and you just couldn’t get a flow, offensively, going. Today, unfortunately, was that kind of game.”