AUGUSTA – Depth has been a key factor in the Richmond boys’ basketball team winning four of the last five Western D regional titles, including each of the last three. At times, the Bobcats went 10 deep.

The team has no such luxury this season.

In Saturday’s 49-34 win over Elan in the Western Class D quarterfinals, each of Richmond’s five starters went the entire 32 minutes. That’s right: Mike Christie, Ben Carver, Kyle O’Brien, Wade Tuttle and Tom Carter never took a seat.

“That’s the way it has been all year,” Richmond Coach Phil Houdlette said. “We’ve gone to our bench a couple of times, but they are so young.”

The Bobcats prepared themselves to play deep into games, doing extra conditioning work through the season.

“We’ve done a lot of conditioning this year,” Richmond guard Mike Christie said. “Last year we used to do three minutes of jump rope, now do six minutes, just to get into it.”

The Bobcats were nearly forced to go to their bench when Christie, who spent some time playing man-to-man defense against Elan’s leading scorer Jack Peters, picked up his fourth foul with 7:16 left in the fourth quarter. The Bobcats, however, dropped into a zone and Christie avoided his fifth foul.

Third-ranked Richmond went 13-3 in the regular season and its starters have grown accustomed to playing significant minutes. An 8:30 a.m. start didn’t make things any easier for the Bobcats.

“I’m pretty sure we are ready for lunch,” forward Tom Carter said. “We are all pretty tired but it is all worth it when you see us ahead on the scoreboard.”

Carter said it was tough to play at such an early hour because the Bobcats practice in the afternoon and play at night, but Houdlette didn’t think it should have been an issue.

“If you can’t get pumped up to play at the Civic Center, I don’t care what time it is,” Houdlette said. “… Yeah, it is not your regular routine, but the thing is, it is the same thing for Elan or whoever plays in the 8:30 game. So if you can’t get pumped up to play at the Civic Center, I don’t know what to tell you.”

MORSE COACH Mike Hart spoke to reporters after his top-ranked team lost to No. 8 Messalonskee on Friday night in the Eastern Class A quarterfinals and summed up the pain his team was feeling and how helpless he felt.

“You don’t ever have anything to say when you go into that locker room and the girls are crying,” Hart said. “You wish you had another day to play, and we don’t.”

POINT GUARD Mary Badeen of Messalonskee deserves a lot of credit for not having to sit out any of the second half against Morse on Friday because of foul trouble.

In the final second of the first half, she picked up her third foul when she hit a scoop shot but also careened into a Morse player. It was one of those split-second, could-go-either-way calls.

Badeen did not pick up another foul the rest of the game, and her seven points and ball-handling were two big reasons the Eagles held on for the upset.

YARMOUTH POINT guard Josh Britten displayed some fancy ball handling while scoring 28 points in a Western Class B quarterfinal win over Mountain Valley.

None was fancier than his dribbling exhibition at midcourt in the second half. Seemingly trapped by four defenders, Britten used some quick, change-of-pace dribbles to elude them. Seeing an opening to the basket, he continued his foray through the middle of the Falcons defense to score a layup.

LEAVITT’S BOYS’ basketball players wore warm-up T-shirts with “Daigle 33 RIP” on the back to honor of Madison Daigle, a Leavitt student killed in a car crash last fall.

“He would have been a senior with these boys,” said Coach Mike Hathaway.

EVERYONE SEEMED to be having trouble shooting foul shots at the Expo. Even Cape Elizabeth’s Theo Bowe missed three, including two in overtime.

“Just a bad foul shooting day overall,” said York’s Aaron Todd, who missed five of six. “I’ve never done that. We work hard at them all the time. Maybe it’s just this first game.”

York’s Kyle Robinson did hit 5 of 5 in the decisive fourth quarter of a 52-47 win over Leavitt. That came after he missed two in the third — including an airball.

“Real nervous,” said Robinson. “Then I said, ‘this is just like any other gym.’ “

— Scott Martin, Matt DiFilippo, Tom Chard and Mike Lowe contributed to this report.