AUGUSTA — The Nokomis girls’ basketball team picked the right time to exact revenge.
Led by Chelsea Crockett’s 21 points and 10 rebounds, the No. 3 Warriors beat No. 6 Camden Hills 55-41 in a Class A North quarterfinal Friday afternoon at the Augusta Civic Center.
The Warriors will meet No. 2 Skowhegan in the semifinals at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.
It was sweet vengeance for Nokomis (15-4), which dropped a 76-53 decision to the Windjammers (11-8) on Feb. 2 after letting a large lead slip away.
Crockett said the team was confident Friday.
“The first time we played against Camden Hills, we came out with a 26-9 run,” Crockett said. “Then we just fell apart. We knew how to play them, because we came out so well the first time, and we knew we just had to play our game and relax.”
“We’re not a team that can go up and down the floor, we just can’t do it, and we’ve never done that,” Nokomis Coach Michelle Paradis added. “We really need to slow the ball down and keep it to a slow pace. We totally collapsed on defense the last time we played them and we tried to run up and down the floor with them, and that’s not anything that we’ve done all season.”
Nokomis led 14-12 after one quarter, thanks to 3-pointers from Crockett and guard Olivia Moore – who knocked down four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points – though the Warriors had some early turnover woes.
“(Crockett and Moore) have been (hitting shots) all season,” Paradis said. “It’s a big help when you have people who can shoot the ball, and more than one person who can shoot the ball, too.”
Nokomis extended its lead in the second quarter, outscoring the Windjammers 16-7, and went to the locker room with a comfortable 30-19 lead.
Camden Hills refused to go away quietly. Led by Charlotte Messer, who scored 14 points, the Windjammers cut their deficit to eight at the end of the third quarter and got as close as five in the fourth.
Then Crockett and Moore knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in a 20-second span, and the Warriors finished off the Windjammers at the free-throw line, nailing eight free throws.
“We knew that (Camden Hills) was a really good team, so we knew if we wanted to beat them we had to play solid defense and not exchange baskets with them,” Crockett said. “We just had to get a defensive stop, go down and score, get a defensive stop, and just keep going.”
Austin Taylor contributed eight points, and Gabrielle Lord added five points and five rebounds for Nokomis.
Kassandra Krul and Miae DeWaard each scored seven points for Camden Hills.
Nokomis beat Skowhegan 41-34 in a regular-season meeting Jan. 12.
“We still need to work on rebounding (before Wednesday),” Paradis said. “If we don’t make the shot, we don’t have a rebounder in there.”
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