AUGUSTA — For a while, the Richmond High girls’ basketball team has wanted to decorate its gym.

“We walk into school every day, and we see that empty banner,” sophomore forward Jamie Plummer said. “And it’s lonely, and it’s about time we put a number up there.”

Additional Photos

The Richmond girls won Western Class D for the first time since 1996, overcoming 31 points by Cindy Schultz to beat Valley, 42-38. The Bobcats meet Washburn next. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Ashley Hines, right, of Valley knocks the ball away from Alyssa Pearson of Richmond during the Western Class D final. Richmond advanced to the state championship game with a 42-38 victory. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Now the Bobcats can. Richmond jumped out to a double-digit lead over Valley, then held off a furious rally in a 42-38 win Saturday afternoon at the Augusta Civic Center, earning the school’s first Western Class D girls’ basketball title since 1996.

Top-seeded Richmond (20-1) will play for the state championship next Saturday at the Bangor Auditorium against Washburn. No. 3 Valley ended the season 13-7.

Ahead 31-21 at the half, the Bobcats almost succumbed to the one-person offensive effort of Cindy Schultz. Valley’s senior guard scored 31 points.

After Ashley Hines made a layup for Valley 37 seconds into the second quarter, Schultz scored the Cavaliers’ next 26 points. No teammate scored until Shannon Rich sank a pair of free throws with 53.7 seconds to play.

Schultz was given the Patricia Gallagher Award as the tournament’s most valuable player. Schultz also won the award in 2009, when Valley won the regional title.

“Have a hand in her face because you never know where she’s going to launch it from. She’s a great player,” Richmond Coach Molly Bishop said.

Schultz made four 3-pointers and also drove the lane for layups. With 4:45 left, she made a pair of free throws to cut Richmond’s lead to 37-35.

“She’s the best guard in Class D. She’s the one who drives the machine, obviously. When she’s on, she’s unstoppable,” Valley Coach Gordon Hartwell said. “We were missing other opportunities and that’s what really hurt us.”

In the first half, Valley couldn’t contain the Bobcats’ inside game. Plummer scored 15 of her 22 points in the first half, and Brooke Lancaster added 11 of her 12 points.

“We just kept taking it to the basket. We were composed. We weren’t rushing things as much as we have the last couple of games,” Bishop said.

Schultz, Bridget Fortin and Hali McQuilkin each picked up three fouls for Valley in the first half as the Cavs couldn’t keep up with Richmond’s quick cuts.

“They came out man-to-man. We just tried to wait for our screens, set our picks and work the ball to the inside and get easy baskets if we could,” Plummer said.

Added Hartwell: “It made it hard when we picked up early fouls on (Plummer), because we had to change all our sub patterns and everything went south from there.

“She had a big game. She had the best game I’ve seen her play, period.”

Schultz outscored the Bobcats 10-2 in the third quarter as Valley closed the deficit to 33-31 entering the fourth. But Richmond regrouped and never surrendered the lead.

“We didn’t come out as intense as we should have in the second half. Once the third quarter was over, we knew we had to step it up,” Plummer said.

Plummer and Alyssa Pearson hit back-to-back shots to extend Richmond’s lead to 41-35 with 2:58 to play, giving the Bobcats a cushion.

“We had a layup to tie it, and that was a big momentum one that we didn’t get. Once we adjusted to their flex cuts, we didn’t make our shots,” Hartwell said. “It took a lot out of us to come back, and to continue to have to come back throughout the whole game. We didn’t have all the gas in the tank in the end.”