It often happens this time of year. You’ll be facing a team you haven’t seen all season, but you played them last year at this time, and you saw them play live just a couple days ago.
That’s the situation top-ranked and defending state champion Hall-Dale is in as the Bulldogs (16-3) face No. 4 Traip (11-8) in the Western C girls basketball semifinals. The game is scheduled for a 4 p.m. start at the Augusta Civic Center. It will be preceded by the other Western C semifinal, between No. 3 Boothbay (13-6) and No. 7 Waynflete (13-7), which will tip off at 2:30.
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The Bulldogs faced Traip in last year’s semifinals, when Hall-Dale was ranked No. 1 and the Rangers were the fifth seed. Hall-Dale led that game 17-3, but Traip got within a point in the second half before Hall-Dale pulled away and won, 45-36.
“They graduated a couple of starters and we graduated a couple of starters, but I think, scheme-wise, and main personnel-wise, it will be pretty similar to last year,” Hall-Dale coach Brandon Terrill said. “They don’t have a ton of size, but neither do we. It ought to be a pretty good matchup.”
Hall-Dale is coming off a 45-32 quarterfinal victory over St. Dominic, a game in which senior Carylanne Wolfington scored 21 points, including the 1,000th of her career, and senior Kristina Buck added 15 points.
“We’re going to have to work on our zone offense,” Terrill said. “It was a little sloppy at times (against St. Dom’s). It seems like Traip runs every zone under the sun, and does it pretty well, and switches up from time to time down the floor.”
Traip defeated Old Orchard Beach 56-49 in the quarterfinals. Forwards Selena Lorrey and Katherine Volpe and guard Alli Barrett are the key players. Barrett had 21 points against OOB, while Lorrey is a 1,000-point scorer. All eight of Traip’s losses were to Western B playoff teams, including two to second-seeded York.
“We got a lot of scouting notes on them from the game before ours,” Terrill said. “We’ll come up with a game plan centered around trying to stop Selena Lorrey. She’s a heck of a player, and we know that.”
There is much more of a disparity in size in the Boothbay-Waynflete matchup. Boothbay has 6-footer Alex Clarke and 5-foot-10 Meghan Smith, while Waynflete’s top rebounders in the quarterfinals were 5-6 guard Rhiannan Jackson and 5-7 guard Martha Veroneau. Jackson and Veroneau combined for 42 points as the Flyers beat Madison 56-39. Waynflete also hit seven 3-pointers in that game.
Boothbay defeated Mt. Abram 58-42 in the quarterfinals. Junior guard Sarah Caron scored 23 points in that game, and Smith scored 14 before fouling out near the end of the third quarter.
“They’re huge, and athletic, and they can shoot, so they don’t have a lot of deficiencies,” Waynflete coach Brandon Salway said. “But we’ll show up Thursday anyways.
“They’re pretty talented, and pretty deep in the post, so we’re going to have to be competitive on the boards. When you get to the semis, you’re going to play somebody that’s pretty good, and they look to me like they’re pretty good.”
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
mdifilippo@centralmaine.com
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