AUGUSTA — The Hall-Dale girls basketball team made itself right at home in the Augusta Civic Center on Tuesday night.
The fourth-seeded Bulldogs used a 28-point night from junior Hayden Madore and 10 different players on the scoresheet to roll to a 74-29 win over No. 5 Richmond in a Class C South quarterfinal. The defending Class C state champions will face top seed North Yarmouth Academy in a regional semifinal Friday.
Teams — experienced or otherwise— have historically noted the ACC’s atmosphere, gym size and free-standing baskets as obstacles to overcome. For the Bulldogs (16-4), there were no adjustments needed.
“It’s an advantage, because we play here so much,” Madore said. “It’s our home court, basically. With the fans and the support that comes, and coming here again this year we were more prepared. We just knew what to do.”
Amanda Trepanier added 15 points and had her shooting touch from the opening tip. She scored the contest’s opening field goal on a baseline drive and followed that 28 seconds later with a pull-up jumper. Trepanier finished with six in the period as Hall-Dale led 14-9 through one.
Trepanier wasn’t done, twice scoring in transition off of Richmond turnovers in the second during a 12-5 run to begin the quarter.
“Our transition is something we have on other teams,” Trepanier said. “We’re all very dynamic and we can all run the floor and finish our layups most of the time.”
Richmond’s Izzy Stewart found foul trouble in the first half, and it opened up a significant gap in the heart of the Bobcats. That allowed Madore to start finding space and the Bulldogs to open up, leading to a 38-19 advantage at halftime.
Though Stewart (14 points) scored six straight after the break to get Richmond (15-4) within 12 early in the third, the Bobcats didn’t connect again from the floor until a Lila Viselli three-pointer as time expired in the quarter.
Hall-Dale never lifted off the gas pedal while the Bobcats struggled and had a 56-32 lead through three.
“That’s our staple,” Hall-Dale coach O.J. Jaramillo said. “We play baseline to baseline. It’s very rare that we won’t. … We have the depth and the numbers. In the third quarter, we went to our first five off the bench and still picked up. It’s a luxury that’s invaluable to me.”
In all, the Bobcats turned the ball over 31 times on the night against Hall-Dale’s unrelenting full-court pressure.
“It’s our transition,” Madore said. “Our main goal is to come in and run, run, run, because of our depth. We knew if we got into their bench, we’d have a little bit of an advantage.”
K.J. Greenhalgh and Sierra Gibbons each added nine points for Hall-Dale, while Jade Graham finished with eight.
Kara Briand netted 11 for Richmond, while Viselli scored 10.
Jaramillo said regular-season losses to Class B Spruce Mountain and C South contender Kents Hill helped prepare his team for a tournament run.
“This year’s been a challenge for us,” Jaramillo said. “You never think losses are good, but I think that’s been motivation. We’ve been so close with some of these big teams, it was like, ‘When are we going to get over the hump?’ Getting some wins against good basketball teams is what we’ve been talking about.”
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