AUGUSTA — Memo to whatever team faces Hall-Dale in next Saturday’s Class C championship game: Don’t make Amanda Trepanier angry. North Yarmouth Academy found that out the hard way Saturday morning.
Trepanier scored 19 points, backcourt mate KK Wills added 13 and Hall-Dale rallied from an 18-point second-quarter deficit to defeat NYA 63-56 in the Class C South girls basketball championship game at the Augusta Civic Center.
Hayden Madore added 10 points for the undefeated, top-seeded Bulldogs (21-0), who will play for the Class C state championship next Saturday in Augusta. The No. 3 Panthers, who have never won an MPA state title, finish 17-3.
Sarah English scored 19 points for NYA, while Angel Huntsman added 12 when not dazzling the Civic Center crowd with her pinpoint running passes from the point, including a couple no-look dishes that resulted in points.
English (15 first-half points) and Huntsman (11) powered NYA to leads of 30-12 in the second quarter and 38-26 at the half. Then Trepanier got mad, got even and got her team to the title.
The Bulldogs went on a 12-0 run on the third period, a rally that included a pair of 3-pointers from Wills. Her second long ball followed a Trepanier steal in the Hall-Dale lane, and gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the game, 46-45, with 36 seconds left in the quarter.
“I play better when I’m angry,” Trepanier, who was named tournament MVP, said with a smile, not long after receiving a parade of hugs and handshakes from teammates and fans. “I play better defense when I’m angry, but I wasn’t angry when I was trying to get the team worked up. I knew that we could come back.”
Wills, trying to balance the title plaque, the victory net and her championship medal as she spoke, agreed.
North Yarmouth Academy defender Madilyn Onorato, left, can’t catch up with Hall-Dale’s Amanda Trepanier on a fastbreak layup during the Class C South title game Saturday morning at the Augusta Civic Center. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
“That (steal) was really the turning point, when everyone said, ‘Yep, we’ve got this in the bag.'” Wills said. “(The coaches) decided, ‘If you get open looks, shoot that ball.’ I saw the open looks, and I let ’em rip.”
NYA knotted the game at 46 on a Huntsman free throw — her only point of the second half — but Trepanier drained a 3-pointer in the first minute of the fourth to give Hall-Dale the lead for good.
Hall-Dale has won some games by pretty lopsided scores this season — 81-7, 71-15 and 67-18, just to name a few. “Trailing” and “deficit” aren’t words normally in the Bulldogs’ vocabulary. But coach O.J. Jaramillo had no doubt his team would pull through.
“I’ve coached and guided these kids from third grade on up; AAU tournaments, middle school tournaments,” Jaramillo said. “We’ve been through that sort of thing, but not at this level. And one thing I know about these kids that a lot of people don’t really see is that they will never quit. Our shooters are going to shoot, the shots are going to fall. In the first half, we weren’t really looking for our shots; it really took us out of our rhythm. Once we started looking for our shots and our shooters gained confidence, good things happened.”
Trepanier’s offensive ability has never been in question. But the crucial third-quarter steal was the product of many long practices, Jaramillo said.
Hall-Dale seniors KK Wills, left, and Averi Baker cut down the net after the Bulldogs defeated North Yarmouth Academy in the Class C South title game Saturday morning at the Augusta Civic Center. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
“She’s been an offensive-minded kid forever, and kudos to her,” he said. “This year, we’ve been working on defense and she’s really been busting her tail, and the fact that she came up with one of the key steals that put us in a position to go ahead was huge.”
Charlotte Harper-Cunningham scored 12 points for NYA, 10 in the fourth quarter.
The Panthers suffered their first loss against a Class C team this season; their only regular-season losses were to Class A Brunswick and Class B Wells. Coach Tom Robinson graduates only one senior, which will give his team a good shot at returning to Augusta next year.
“They (Hall-Dale) definitely increased their team speed, put the pressure on a little bit, so we didn’t get as many transition baskets,” Robinson said. “They definitely stepped up the intensity.
“I told the girls, ‘Remember how this one feels. It hurts, it should hurt. Get better in the offseason and hopefully we’ll be back here next year.’ Nothing’s guaranteed, but I like our chances.”
Hall-Dale, meanwhile, has some unfinished business of its own. The Bulldogs last won a state title in 2011, and Wills was in the stands to see her sister participate in the celebration. Eleven years later, she has a chance to add her own name to the Bulldogs’ record book.
“Now it’s our turn,” she said.
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