Cony coach Karen Magnusson said her team won’t be overconfident while Skowhegan’s Heath Cowan would like a repeat of Friday’s second half as both teams head into the Eastern Maine Class A tournament semifinals today.
Top-seeded Cony takes on No. 4 Mt. Ararat while Cowan’s No. 6 Indians face No. 2 Edward Little in afternoon contests at the Augusta Civic Center.
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Cony (19-0) beat Mt. Ararat twice during the regular season, including a 57-21 drubbing in Topsham last month. Magnusson isn’t banking on a repeat of that game.
“We teach one game at a time and the girls know that,” she said. “Now with the playoff games everyone is going to play their best ball.”
Mt. Ararat looked impressive in defeating Messalonskee 52-46 in the quarterfinal round. The Eagles feature a strong inside game with Leah Hitchcock and Mallory Nelson, and they got a good game from sophomore guard Caitlin LaFountain.
“They have two very talented forwards,” Magnusson said. “That’s something we have to focus on, boxing out, and we have to keep their guards in front.”
Cony ran past Bangor in the quarterfinals, getting 25 points from Mia Diplock, 13 from Josie Lee and 12 from Melanie Guzman. Like Cony teams of the past, the Rams like to press, run and shoot 3-pointers.
“We really want to try to get out and run as much as we can and set the tempo,” Magnusson said.
Skowhegan staged one of the greatest comebacks in school history Friday, rallying from 17 points down at the half to beat No. 3 Mt. Blue by a point in overtime. The Indians didn’t play the Red Eddies in the regular season but both teams are familiar with one another.
“I’ve seen Skowhegan play a few times,” Edward Little coach Craig Jipson said.
The Eddies will press before falling back into their halfcourt matchup zone. Cowan is sure they’ll pay particular attention to senior Amanda Johnson, who scored 27 points against Mt. Blue.
“I would expect they’ll do some special things against Amanda,” he said. “If they do, we’ve got other kids who are more than capable.”
The Eddies have two excellent guards of their own in junior Ashlee Arnold, who averaged more than 16 points a game this season, and sophomore Kory Norcross.
“Arnold and Norcross can both shoot it,” Cowan said. “We’ll have our hands full. We’ll try to hang in there and steal one at the end. We’ve got to go with what got us here.”
Gary Hawkins — 621-5638
ghawkins@centralmaine.com
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